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Enugu Govt. To Increase State’s Electricity Capacity
The government of Enugu State has revealed that it would increase the state’s electricity capacity from the current 70 megawatts received from the national grid to 700 megawatts through private sector investment.
Governor Peter Mbah made this promise on Tuesday in Enugu at a Stakeholders’ Engagement and Consultation, organised by the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission, EERC, to review its draft regulatory instruments in the state capital.
According to him, increasing electricity capacity was in line with his administration’s vision to meet the state’s power needs and grow the state economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion.
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Mbah further said that his government was eager to get the inputs of industry stakeholders into the state’s draft electricity regulatory framework to make the state’s electricity market viable.
The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said the campaign promise to resuscitate pipe-borne water, improve security, education, healthcare delivery services and others, would not be possible without a drastic improvement in electricity capacity.
“Therefore, we are opening up the entire value chain of the electricity market in the state for all market participants to play, from supply to generation, transmission to distribution.
“Electricity retailing through off-grid to mini-grid solutions and from metering to energy efficiency applications,” he said.
The governor assured the industry players of the continued independence of EERC to operate without political or administrative interference.
On his part, the Chairman of EERC, Chijioke Okonkwo, expressed worry over the present power deficit in the state, saying that the commission needed to carry everyone along from the outset, in order to build investor confidence required to turn things around.
He further said that the engagement would give stakeholders an opportunity to make inputs and enable them to agree on what the regulations should be to support investment initiatives before finalization, adoption, and implementation of the regulatory framework
In a remark, the Managing Director of Siemens Energy Nigeria, Seun Suleiman, lauded the transparency of the State Government through its regulatory agency.
“I see a lot of transparency here today.
“Each commissioner is breaking down all the discussions in terms of the regulation and how you will get the permit.
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“We are very happy because we also want to support a lot of these captive power investors with our ranges of gas turbines, which we have done in so many places,” Suleiman said.
Also, the Acting Managing Director of the Infrastructure Bank, Nkiru Chime, said, “Enugu State is being very proactive in setting out how the electricity market will play.
“But funding is needed to drive the investment, and that is why we are here to provide an avenue to enable all the participants and market developers to attract the right kind of funding to develop the market”.
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