Amazing Nigerians burn away 5 billion on generators annually. According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara lawmakers are reviewing some of Nigeria’s energy laws to offer a proper legal framework that would help renewable energy to the benefit of the economy.
Renewable energy is a source of clean energy which is environment-friendly and is crucial to the economy of the future. We can only be self-sufficient in the energy field when we combine all our energy resources such as the wind, solarxx, hydro, biomass, biofuel, landfill, sewage gas, solid waste, geothermal energy, ocean energy among others. The proper legal framework to exploit renewable energy which is nature’s gift to humanity is non-existent in Nigeria.
Nigeria is a country with enormous resources and untapped opportunities.  To meet its full potential experts in the power sector estimate that Nigeria will require an investment of at least 3.5 billion dollars annually in power generating capacity, with large investments required in the other supply chain of transmission and distribution networks.
Mr Babatunde Fashola, Minister for Power, Works and Housing, said in a lecture that the Federal Government’s road map for solving the country’s power crisis was to utilise incremental power wherever it could be found to achieve steady power supply.
In a bid to improve power generation, supply and distribution, the Federal Government signed a Solar Power Purchase Agreements worth 1.75 billion dollars with 14 companies to build 1,125 megawatts capacity of renewable power across the country. The Minister for Power, Works and Housing elucidated that the incremental power project of the Federal Government is the development of hydro power through the construction and rehabilitation of several hydro power dams in the country.
In addition, some of the ongoing power projects include the 30-megawatt Gurara hydro power plant in Kaduna, 10-megawatt Tiga dam hydropower plant in Kano, 10-megawatt Oyan dam hydro power plant in Osun and 8-megawatt Challawa dam hydropower plant in Kano.
There are reports that NEPA power supply has been stable in many areas of Lagos for the last few months. We have however been here before, such as in the early days of the Muhammadu Buhari government. The power supply from NEPA was constant, the price of generators and inverters were falling. The masses were hopeful that the hell they had lived in was coming to an end. What transpired in Nigeria since then has been hell times two. The country saw some of the worst power failures in living memory. The prices of generators and inverters have more than doubled. For example in 2015 you could buy a quality grid tied inverter with a built-in charger for N20,000. The same inverter now cost over N50,000.
There are however signs that the situation is starting to change for the better with the recent announcement by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that Power Generation Companies (GenCos) have deployed Free Control mechanisms in their power plants. The free governor is an important controller in the power plant as it regulates the turbine speed and power movement in the grid frequency regulation. According to power sector analyst, the deployment is responsible for the recent improvements in national grid power supply. Are you experiencing good NEPA supply area?