The deplorable state of the power sector in the year 2007 has gradually and steadily become a thing of the past going by massive investments in the nation power sector through the power transformation agenda of the present administration .
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, not unmindful of the importance of stable , reliable and affordable power supply to enduring sustainable economic development, has been creatively turning the age-long paradox of ‘Fat Campaign, Lean Harvest’ to that of Lean Campaign , Fat Harvest for the generality of Nigerians by investing the right resources in the power sector to yield the right results.
Today, many Nigerians are living witnesses to the fact that power outage is gradually becoming a thing of the past – a development that made many Nigerians in diaspora to reconsider their stands in foreign lands through comparative advantage and cost effective analysis of living index.
To some of these Nigerians struggling in some other economies in Europe and America, uninterrupted supply of electricity would make life abundant for them since most of their children born in foreign land have never witnessed power outage.
Other group believe that Nigeria has already started its journey to stardom if electricity consumers could now be getting between 10 and twenty hours of uninterrupted power supply daily.
The latter group based their hope on the level of involvement of the Federal Government in the power projects in the last two years through the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, which increased the pace and volume of investments in the power sector.
It is on records that a revitalized NIPP under President Jonathan’s Power Transformation Agenda, has re-invigorated the power sector by adding significant new generation capacity to Nigeria’s Electric Supply System along with the Transmission and Distribution infrastructure required to deliver the additional capacity to consumers throughout the country in the year 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Today, Nigerians are living witnesses to over 118 projects in43 lots that were implemented in Transmission involving power station evacuation and closing of the Eastern flank of the National grid . Not only that, 5, 640 MVA of 330/132kv transformer capacity and 3,433 MVA of 132/33kv transformer capacity were supplied and installed in different parts of the country to improve transmission capacity in the system.
This laudable effort was complemented with the construction of 12 new 330 kv Substations and 8 new 132 kv Substations while the expansion of 36 existing 330 kv and 132 kv Substations were equally carried out for greater performance in 2012.
On top of the benefits stemming from the massive investment in transmission infrastructure were the construction of additional 2,194 kilometres of 330 kv lines and 809 km of 132 kv lines to strengthen the capacity for power evacuation from the newly constructed power Sub-stations in throughout the nooks and crannies of this great country. This positive development has ,no doubt, helped to improve the quality of services and therefore quality of life across the country.
Besides, the Distribution infrastructure were not left out of the effort of this government to ensure stable and reliable electric power supply at relative low cost as this life wire of power generation and transmission were rejuvenated with 43 lots of Low Loss High Voltage Distribution System ( HVDS) distribution projects and 295 injections Sub-stations with 3,540 MVA injection Sub-station capacity. Quite a huge kilometres of 11 kv lines, 2,600 km and 1,700 km of 33 kv lines were also added to the national grid for better performance.
The Generation was equally given its pride of place by the Transformation Agenda driven by the NIger Delta Power Holding Company (‘ NDPHC ) deploying the Power Emergency Fund (PEF) in a cost effective manner to ensure early completion of the National integrated Power Projects, NIPP at Olorunsogo, Sapele, Alaoji and Omotosho Power stations.
Under the shrewd and highly resourceful management team led by Mr James. A. Olotu, Managing Director of NDPHC, these power stations ,which were work – in – progress and at various stages of completion, added 1,687.5 MW of electric power to the national grid as December, 2012.
For avoidance of doubts,evidence abound in the critical areas of generation , transmission and distribution infrastructure that there was massive investment and commissioning of these value added projects in different Discos and Power Stations across the country with media as witnesses to remarkable improvement in the electric power supply to consumers.
Beneficiary Discos were in Benin, Eko,Ikeja, Ibadan, Abuja, Kaduna, Jos , Yola and so on.
The government sincerity of purpose in its determination to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the citizenry is equally evident in the transformation of Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility at NPDC operated field in Edo State which its currently supplies 65Million Standard Cubic Feet of Gas per Day to an all time higher record of 400 million scf/d with the potential to reach desired level of 600 million standardcfd to address gas challenges and boost the power transformation agenda of the present administration.
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, reiterated the project was in line with the ongoing reform process in the industry designed to ensure the monetization of the nation’s gas endowment through gas to power and other gas related uses.
President Goodluck Jonathan administration at Aso Rock has , no doubt, been turning around the deficit in the power sector but Nigerians are averagely pleased with his government over this development as the shout of NEPA that usually rent the air whenever there was a power outage are no longer in vogue.
Uninterrupted power supply is gradually becoming a reality and the good news is filtering to Nigerians even beyond the country’s borders as most power outages don’t usually last 20-30 minutes unless there was a major fault on the transmission or distribution lines in the disco concerned.
Many Lagosians have practically abandoned their ‘ I pass my neighbor generators ‘ and made saving on fuel used for generators because of the remarkable improvement in power supply notwithstanding the havoc being wreaked by ‘second NEPA’ who usually throw spanner into the wheels , all for ‘want of bread’.
. Jonathan’s Power Transformation is self evident in the massive investment in Generation , Transmission and Distribution infrastructure and this probably explains the reason why President Jonathan asked Christiana Armanpour, a CCN reporter to ask Nigerians on the Streets their opinion on marked improvement in power supply in the country. A radio station , Radio Continental, equally carried out a ‘Voice Pop’ on the same issues in which 60 percent of their respondents admitted marked improvement in electric power supply in the country while the other 40 were claiming ignorance.
‘ Fact is sacred but opinion is cheap’ the statistics of this laudable achievement are within public purview as shown in this article
However, there is a broad consensus that Jonathan Power Transformation Agenda has led to marked improvement in regular power supply with its attendant impact on sustainable economic development which has inadvertently improved the capacity utilization of some manufacturing plants who are now churning out their products in a cost effective manner. It is rather an established fact that the dividends of GEJ power transformation agenda has enabled companies and artisans such as welders, hairdresser, fashion designers and so on to work harder and more economically than ever before.
One of the areas where the government image is being redeemed is through regular supply of electricity as Nigerians no longer shout and cursed “NEPA” whenever there was power outage in their areas because they know that the localized outage will soon be restored.
Today Rate of service turnover by PHCN officials is rather very swift compared to what it used to be even if it is a major fault. Gone are the days when a faulty transformer will be replaced two, three months after the issue had been reported to PHCN. The highest time frame for such repairs today is between 48 and 72 hours! This is , no doubt, a presidential order!
As critical challenges in the distribution and transmission of generated power are being addressed through NDPHC and other agencies and contractors, government needs the cooperation of every Nigerian to raise the bar on power generation to a desired level of 10,000 MW.
Going by this projection, about 4,264 MW of electric power is expected to be delivered on completion of all Gas Turbine projects while additional 510MW outstanding from Alaoji combined cycle plant will be delivered as well as all the transmission and distribution projects across the country considering all factors of relative merits which include gas challenges, security and community issues, port clearing and coordination challenges and above all, contractors performance problems.
The president has creatively improved the quality of lives of Nigerians through steady transition from power outage to more regular power supply and his determination is to continue in this stead until we achieve 10,000 MW by the last quarter of 2013.
Who says GEJ PowerTransformation Agenda Is not on course?