According to Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, in order to enhance the availability of electricity, the Federal Government intends to concentrate on an alternative source of generation.
The goal, according to Adelabu, was to shift the emphasis away from the national grid and toward distributed power in his remarks to electricity correspondents on Wednesday in Abuja.
Without going via the national grid, power may be produced and sent straight to customers, in his opinion. Looking at alternative sources of generation is the best way to accomplish this, he continued.
“We want to use small hydros, and we have small dams that can generate between 500 kilowatts down to five megawatts. So, we want to focus on that to generate power for identified locations embedded in the distribution network without passing through the transmission network because the capacity and stability of our transmission is still constrained,” he said.
The minister said that the government was also looking at solar energy, as many investors have offered to invest in it.
Adelabu said that many of these investors were asking the government to provide them with a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and connect it to the grid.
“No, it won’t happen now. Whoever wants to invest in solar power must identify who the off-takers are; our focus should be on off-grid power generation.
“We have proposals for offshore wind power in Nigeria, as we have the potential for this because we are a coastal country. We can have wind fans that provide us with very clean power.
“That is what we want to do, which is why we concentrate on continuously improving the grid and expanding its capacity. We don’t want to wait; we want to generate power and distribute it to our people,” he said.
Adelabu said he has also ordered an investigation into the extension of the licenses of electricity distribution companies, otherwise known as DisCos, by five years.