BY VICTORIA OJEME
ABUJA – The Federal Government said available electricity output now stands at 4,000MW, blaming poor infrastructure for the inability of government to evacuate the total electricity generation put at 6,000MW.
Minister of Science and Technology, Prof Mohammed Abubakar, made this known yesterday at the summit on energy and sustainable economic growth organised by the Energy Commission of Nigeria, ECN.

The Minister explained that the available 4,000MW was a mix of 36 per cent hydro and 64 per cent thermal.
The current level of electricity output notwithstanding, Abubakar noted that studies on electricity demand by ECN had shown that even with the on-going efforts in the sector, installed generation capacity would not be able to meet the requirements of the projected growth rate in the country for attaining the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.

He assured that government was currently investing heavily in expanding the generation capacity, stressing that the efforts would bring the total installed capacity to not less than 15,000MW.

According to him, “the projected peak national energy demand is put at between 28,000- 31,000MW by 2015.

“Revised demand projections by the ECN have indicated that at the growth rate of 10% required to meet the MDG, Nigeria’s peak demand will be in the range of 175,000-192,000MW by 2030.”

He, however, insisted that renewable energy sources such as hydro, solar, wind, biomass, among others, were the best options of energy suppliers for sustainable economic growth of the nation because of the positive role they play in clean electric power production, food and agriculture, animal production, water supply, health care delivery and environmental protection.

Earlier in his keynote address, the Director-General of ECN, Prof. Abubakar Sambo, lamented that with the abundant energy types in the country, Nigeria had the challenges of supplying, transforming, delivering and effective use of energy services to achieve sustainable growth and development.

He warned that “as long as the primary energy supply mix is biased towards fossil fuels, it would be difficult to achieve sustainable economic growth with the current fossil fuel-based energy technologies.

“Given that the nation’s economy is expected to double in size over the next twenty years, the nation’s consumption of energy will also increase significantly, even with its highly inefficient supply, conversion and use.

“It is, therefore, important to look closely into our energy system and accord priority attention to new and renewable energy systems, and increased end-use efficiency, while promoting clean fossil fuel technologies.”
In his remarks, Chairman of the occasion and Special Adviser on Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, lamented that access to basic, affordable and clean energy services was one of the main hurdle confronting the country at present.

He added that “access to sustainable energy is essential for reducing poverty, malnutrition and hunger, improving health, increasing levels of literacy and education, and significantly improving the lives of women and children.