The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has dismissed the notion that the recent improvement in electricity supply is due to the rainy season.
Adelabu made this clarification during a press briefing held by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Abuja on Thursday.
The briefing centered on TCN’s efforts to restore power supply in the northern region following the destruction of infrastructure by vandals.
Adelabu explained that only 25% of the country’s power generation is sourced from hydro plants, while 75% comes from gas-fired thermal stations.
He emphasized that the improvement in power supply cannot be attributed to increased rainfall.
“During raining season, we have only about 25% of power generated from hydro sources. The majority of our supply is from gas thermal. The rain does not have much impact on power generation during raining season.
“I’m sure that the stability we have recorded in the past few months is not because of raining season but because of improvement in power generation. We just opened the Zungeru Power Plant which is not even generating at full capacity.
“It is generating at about 300-400MW because of the existing evacuation limitations. We are working to address this and I assure you that we will record further improvement even during the dry season,” Adelabu said.
Capital Punishment for Vandals
Adelabu further revealed that the National Assembly is reviewing a bill proposing capital punishment for vandals who destroy electricity infrastructure.
He stated that the federal government seeks harsher penalties to deter such criminal activities nationwide.
Additionally, the Minister urged the public to stop patronizing scrap metal sellers, noting that many of them source their materials from vandalized power equipment.
“There is a bill before the National Assembly for capital punishment for perpetrators of vandalism. We want stiffer punishment for these criminals.
“Also, we need to look at stopping the sale of scrap metals in the country. They are those who encourage vandalism because they buy these things from criminals cheaply,” Adelabu added.
What you should know
Despite several government interventions, the power sector continues to face challenges, mainly due to underinvestment and a lack of liquidity.
In August, the federal government announced a payment of N205 billion to address part of the N1.3 trillion gas supply debt in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
This debt settlement effort is aimed at improving liquidity in the sector and, in turn, ensuring a boost in power supply.