He said the various committees are at work to stabilising and securing power. There are three levels, one is the existing infrastructure which is handling the immediate and emergency rehabilitation work on power generation, the transmission and distribution to stabilise the network because of the tendency to just concentrate on the new power stations at the expense of the existing networks.
“Presently there is a problem of when transformers are out they cannot be replaced immediately. So on that level there is a fastrack to addressing such issues on an emergency level.”
Makoju said an undisclosed amount of money has been approved for the first level and identified the second level to be the reviewing of the progress being made on new power plants to identify where there are bottlenecks and come up with immediate responses to them especially in the areas of funding, technical issues, interface issues between supply and the contractors, so as to fast track their completion.
The third level is that of the reform of the sector. “You are aware that we have some issues, like the labour issues which entails completing negotiation on severance pay so that we move everybody forward with the reform that is already well on ground. Basically that is what we are doing at the three levels. There is a process of reviewing the progress being made at the three levels”, he said.
Makoju said the Federal Government was aware of the views expressed by the public about the journey on in the power sector and the frustration expressed by the various stakeholders in the country on how slow it is but explained that it is due to the nature of the sector which is much more complex, highly technical and capital intensive, being the live wire that drives the economy.
He commended NERC for lunching the grid, distribution and metering codes which he said was timely to inform the public on the peculiar nature of the sector and to reassure them that the nation was on course with a clear direction and plan to attain the final destination of attaining reliable, adequate and affordable electricity for every one.
Source: This Day Online
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