With the 4th WorldStage National Electricity Power Conference 2014 set to address the challenges facing the Nigeria’s liberalized electricity power sector, major stakeholders including the Chairman, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi; Managing Director/CEO of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Mack Kast; Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State, among others have confirmed participation in the forum.
According to the organizers, the conference has been shifted to October 23, 2014 from the September date earlier scheduled at the Lagoon Restaurant, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, to accommodate more requests for participation by stakeholders.
While Dr. Sam Amadi is expected to deliver a paper ‘Commitment Of NERC Towards Regulation And Effective Consumer’s Right On Electricity Supply Chain’ at the WNEPC 2014 to be chaired by the President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCL), Alhaji Aderemi Ismaila Bello, the TCN boss will discuss ‘TCN: Meeting The Electricity Transmission Capacity For Nigeria Post-Privatization’.
Moreover, the Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso whose state has achieved commendable progress in power generation through Independent Power projects (IPP) for economic development, will share his dream and experience with the highly networking forum.
Mr Segun Adeleye, President/CEO, World Stage Limited, organizers of the conference said, with about 30 million households in Nigeria still without access to electricity at the dawn of a new era in Nigeria’s liberalized electricity power sector, it is crucial for stakeholders to meet at WNEPC 2014 to address the challenges facing the power sector.
He said, “The challenges that surfaced with the new dispensation are numerous but not un-surmountable.”
He listed the challenges to include; the rising activities of vandals who burst gas pipelines and other power transmission equipment; high level of power theft and by–passing metering; gas supply limitation; revenue collection; transmission wheeling capacity; funding model for transmission; expected declaration of Transition Electricity Market; lack of accurate data on power demand of the entire country; non-alignment of the entire value chain of power generation, transmission and distribution; security of investment; right pricing and efficient usage of available electricity; paucity of funding transmission and aging 132KV lines.
“As Nigerian banks invested about N750 billion in the power sector since its privatisation, it’s imperative that the security of this huge exposure rests squarely on every efforts to ensure the success of the privatization process,” he said.