NNPC Says 77m Nigerians Lack Access To Power

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc on Thursday provided statistics on misalignments in the power value chain, saying that about 14,000 megawatts of electricity was contracted to power generation companies.

Managing Director, NBET, Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, gave a breakdown of the quantum of Nigeria’s electricity demand, what was contracted, available capacity, what was produced, among others.

He provided these statistics while speaking during a plenary session at the World Energy Day Conference 2021, with the theme, ‘Energy Transition: Gas as Fuel of Choice’, organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

This came as the Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Mohammed Ahmed, told participants at the event that about 77 million Nigerians were currently without access to electricity.

Providing statistics on Nigeria’s power situation, Ewelukwa said, “In terms of situating the gas discussion within the context of the power sector, we have some misalignments in the value chain which the government is trying to address.

“And that misalignment starts with the fact that in terms of the demand for electricity in the country, it is about 28,000MW. But when you look at the contracted capacity for electricity, it is about 14,000MW.

“You look at the current available capacity of electricity in terms of what was contracted, it is about 7,600MW. You look at transmission capacity, it is about 8,100MW.”

He added, “Now, of all these statistics the most important is what is the highest volume of electricity ever put on the grid; it is 5,800MW. So you see that it keeps dropping.”

The NBET boss explained that the 5,800MW was the highest peak ever attained in the history of Nigeria, but stressed that what was actually available on a day-to-day basis was between 4,000MW and 5,000MW.

“And of that 4,000MW to 5,000MW, because of issues relating to tariff, such as concerns about cost reflective tariff, what actually is paid on a monthly basis by the distribution companies is not up to that 4,000MW that is available,” Ewelukwa stated.

He, however, noted that the good thing was that there were plans within the government space to address the anomalies.

On his part, Ahmed, who was represented by the Managing Director, NNPC Gas and Power Investment Limited, Salihu Jamari, said Nigeria had about 200 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves that could be used for power generation, among others.