Nigeria’s power grid won’t grow without industries – Minister

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has stated that  Nigeria’s national grid will not grow if industries continue to leave. Speaking during the commissioning of a training equipment and Simulation Infrastructure for Capacity Development in Power Distribution by the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Adelabu said industries are creating embedded and captive power […]

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has stated that  Nigeria’s national grid will not grow if industries continue to leave.

Speaking during the commissioning of a training equipment and Simulation Infrastructure for Capacity Development in Power Distribution by the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Adelabu said industries are creating embedded and captive power to sustain thier operations which are costly due to the unreliability of the National grid.

He however said for the to increase from the current 5,0000 megawatts to 30,000MW the industries need to get power supply from the grid as they are the major consumers.

“Until we start attracting industries, major institutions to come back to the grid, there won’t be any major leap in our grid generation. The more reliable we make our grid power supply, more people will actually come back to grid generation. How much power does the household consume? How much power do the offices consume? Even our institutions, health and educational. If we generate 10,000 to 12,000 megawatts today, we will electrify all of them. If we want to move our grid generation to the level of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 megawatts, industries must come back.”

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He also clarified the misconception that the country generates an average of 6,000MW, saying industries and individuals generate over 25,000MW of electricity from solar and other alternative energy sources.

“We’ve got a lot of captive power, you understand, which if we add it to grid generation and other renewable power for rural electrification, it may be well over 20,000, 25,000 megawatts. But the measure of development is the grid generation, which is the most reliable. So, which is why we are saying we must make our grid supply as reliable as possible; as qualitative as possible; as stable as possible and as functional as possible.”

He added that the project to be commissioned would help the country to reduce loss of electricity supply in the country.

On his part, the Director General NAPTIN, Ahmed Bolaji Nagode, said the project would lead to training of 33 personnel from the 11 DisCos in the country, facilitating the reduction of challenges faced in the distribution subsector.