Concerned about the poor state of electricity supply to the industrial sector, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has called for the review of the purchase agreements between investors in the sector and the Federal Government with a view to revisiting the entire privatization arrangement.
This, according to the body, is because the private sector operators running the industry do not seem to have the capacity to achieve effective power generation and distribution.
The President, MAN, Dr. Frank Jacobs, told our correspondent in an exclusive interview that there might be a need to introduce a micro grid or community grid system to the power sector.
He said it was a huge challenge that a country of 170 million people was struggling with less than 4,000 megawatts of electricity at peak generation.
According to the MAN president, embedded generation will also be necessary for increased power supply, adding that more players with requisite capacity should be brought in.
He said, “The country has a problem with gas-to-power. The issue appears to be hydra-headed. Pipeline security is a challenge, while the disruption in the production process of oil companies is rampant.
“There is also the non-implementation of the Gas Master Plan. Unless these are addressed, gas to power may be difficult to achieve and consequently, power generation cannot be fully realised. However, transmission must be overhauled and improved upon as it is apparent that the current transmission facilities are inadequate.”
Jacobs described electricity supply to the manufacturing sector as grossly inadequate and of poor quality, adding that operators in the sector were being forced to expend huge sums of money on self-energy generation as well as on power purifiers and boosters.
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