In renewed efforts to improve access and consistent electricity supply to underserved populations, the Federal Government has said plans were underway to grant licences for the establishment of smaller Distribution Companies (DisCos)

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu who disclosed at the 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) on Friday in Abuja, noted that there was a need to also focus on renewable energy sources and distributed power models for remote communities that were not so attractive to the existing distribution companies because of their small population and poor productive capacity.

He said: “We are also saying that there will be licensing of smaller DisCos for small communities, where the existing DisCos are not really making an impact. We may not have to revoke your licences but your catchment areas can be distributed when you are not performing.”

Adelabu who further disclosed that distribution was the weakest link in the power sector, however, urged existing DisCos to deepen penetration, and improve service delivery, because they were closest to the consumers.

To this end, the minister said there was a need for DisCos to be restructured along state lines so that every state government, state ministry of energy, state electricity board, and board of rural electrification would know who they were dealing with.

“Generation and transmission, are wholesale segments of the value chain. We can handle it from the federal government at the Ministry of Power and its agencies. But when it comes to distribution, the subnational government must be involved. That is the retail end of the value chain.

“We have seen what happened in Abia State. That is one of our core strategies of encouraging distributed power so that every state is not only involved in distribution but can establish its own power plant.

“Just 141MW of power by Geometric which the capacity can be upgraded to 188MW can serve the whole of Abia State.

“Before now, Abia was getting only 50MW supply from Calabar power plant to APL, now they have 141MW. So the excess will not only be used by Umuahia and other cities in Abia but can also contribute to the grid. If every state has 100MW in Nigeria, we are talking about 3,600MW, the energy poverty will disappear.

“These DisCos must be recapitalised. They need to bring funds into the sector. The only money they brought into this sector, was the money they paid for the acquisition of the DisCos. They have not brought money to invest, and power investment is a huge investment.

“To establish 330kw Substation today in Nigeria cost about $50million. To install a 100km of 33kv or 11kv line costs tens of millions of dollars. So if the DisCos are really serious and they want to rise to their biddings, they must reinvest money either through equity or debt capital”, he added.

The minister who raised concerns over the increasing rate of what he described as deliberate destruction of power installations across the country, warned that such acts of sabotage would frustrate the government’s efforts on stable power supply which would not augur well for the nation.

“We have had more than ten (10) instances in the last two months, so why won’t you have grid collapse? It happened in Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Nasarawa, and even in Abuja here it happened last week, which has affected the power supply in Abuja.

“These are assets built with our national fund which we must jealously protect. Beyond sabotage, some bring them down for resale. You go to the electricity market and you see transformers, cables, and polls stolen from communities.

It will be tough for us to achieve the kind of momentum that we desire in the power sector if this act of sabotage and theft continues in the power sector,” Adelabu lamented. (New Telegraph)