New Telegraph

Energy Crisis: CBN earmarks N104bn to stabilise electricity supply

Following the recurrent system collapse of the National Power Grid leading to nationwide blackouts each time, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is currently providing about N104 billion ($250 million), for the rehabilitation and strengthening of critical transmission and distribution infrastructure interfaces, in order to increase and stabilize electricity supply.

Recall that the privatisation of the power sector in 2013 was primarily to ensure constant power supply to homes and industries, however, the reverse has been the case with Nigerians groaning under the effect of an epileptic supply currently hovering around 2000 megawatts.

According to the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, the $250 million project being funded by the CBN was in addition to the Siemens Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) which was expected to bring in additional $2.0 billion or more to the Transmission Grid from the government.

He said: “It is almost $4 billion secured by this administration to augment the grid. It should be noted that many of these funds are being actively spent and the results will be felt over time. The interface projects along with others already being embarked upon by TCN brings ongoing projects in the transmission segment alone to 135 ongoing projects with 30 completed key substation projects and 12 transmission lines.”

The Market Operator at Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Edward Eje, who noted that the project was aimed at providing quick solutions at transmission/distribution interfaces experiencing  challenges, said: “It is a laudable measure to achieve a seamless and a hitch-free power transmission from the transmission  stations to the distribution network.”

On his part, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company, (NBET) Dr. Nnaemeka Eweluka, disclosed that the apex bank was able to identify critical projects that if quickly addressed, would restore normalcy

“The CBN is working with TCN and the DisCos. CBN basically asked what are those critical projects that if they are addressed today can quickly yield results in the sector. This is even as the Federal Government is doing this Siemens project and TCN is implementing the report, what are those critical projects that if they are done today, will unlock additional megawatts quickly.

“And so the DISCOs and TCN worked together to come up with a list of some critical projects and I can’t be specific on the amount, maybe we can furnish that subsequently but that is what is happening. CBN decided to find those critical interventions so that there could be some quick wins even as the bigger project is being implemented.”

However, an energy expert, Bode Fadipe, who maintained poor liquidity was a fundamental issue in the power sector, noted that the gains of the DisCo/TCN funded interface project was huge as it would help to bring more load into the grid to enable more people receive electricity for their use as locations where transformers were overloaded would be uprated.

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