By Sebastine Obasi and Ediri Ejoh

Federal Government’s quest to tackle the perennial power shortages in the country may not be achieved soon, as two key organs of the government differ on embedded generation.

While the Director-General, National Power Training Institute of Nigeria, NAPTIN, Mr. Reuben Okeke, believes that renewable energy will not offer succor to effectively grow Nigeria’s economy, the Chairman/CEO, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, argued that embedding is the future of the electricity industry.

Embedded electricity generation is a situation whereby the generator provides power directly through the distribution networks. This consists of smaller or modular generators that use a variety of technologies, such as solar, wind, biomass, diesel, fuel oils, low pour fuel oil, LPFO, high pour, high pour fuel oil, HPFO, crude oil, small hydro.

Okeke, who spoke at the annual conference of the Energy writers, said the western countries are looking for markets for their products, which necessitated their aggressive campaign for renewable energy.
“Globally, everybody seems to play down on gas because of emission.

Everybody seems to play down on the use of coal, because the Western nations are campaigning against it. But it is not in our favour.

“Recently, Germany wooed us with huge amount of money to embark on renewable energy in the country – solar, wind, turbines, etc. for us to reduce emission. But our economy is still at low ebb. There is no way our economy will grow with renewable energy, no matter what it is, because we need the megawatts, MW, in quantum.

“We have a target of getting 40,000MW by 2020. Out of that, 1,000MW according to the road map, will come from renewable energy. It is all strange to get 100 percent from renewable compared with conventional energy. Our economy cannot grow until we have these megawatts in quantum.

Renewable energy cannot give it to us.“The developed countries are just looking for where to dump their products. They do not want us to grow. They want us to take carbon credit. That is if we are spending $10 million to produce 1MW from conventional energy, we are ready to give you $50 million to let you use your gas or coal,” he said.

He also explained that Nigeria must not abandon its God-given resources due to pressure from the west. Why must we abandon our God-given natural resources? Israel till now is almost 100 percent on coal. They still import coal. South Africa is also on coal.

“Not harnessing our natural endowment properly has impeded our growth as a nation. If there is anything we can do for this gas master plan to be implemented appropriately, it will be welcome so that our megawatts can grow.
“The present administration is doing well in that direction.

There are new generating plants coming into the national grid. If you check out transmission, you can see the number of transformers that have been commissioned. About 224 distribution injection sub-stations are ready that once these things are there, we can spring from our 4,000MW to 20,000 MW, but there is no gas,” he added.

However, Amadi, while presenting license for embedded power generation recently to the Bauchi State Governor, Mr. Isa Yuguda, maintained that embedded generation is a project that should be emulated and executed by others.

‘’We present this project as a model to other state governors. We have certified all environmental issues on the project. We feel happy about it. It is the vision of the industry to generate sufficient power for all,” he said.
Amadi said that the embedded generation would also be a useful means of dedicating power to a particular state and local government, eligible customers and others.

According to him, NERC was not exempting anybody, as all are qualified to be beneficiaries, saying embedded generation is a project that should be emulated and executed by others.

The energy conference was sponsored by industry operators including the Chrome/Kaztec Group; Chevron Nigeria Limited; the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; Shell Nigeria; the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, NDPHC, as well as, Federal Ministry of Power.

Other contributors include, Energia Limited; Forte oil Plc, Chrome Group; Addax Petroleum; Seplat Petroleum Development Company plc; the Nigeria LNG Limited; West African Gas Pipeline Company; Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, IKEDC; Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, and Eko Electricity Distribution PLC, EKEDC.