…Says unreliable grid hampers economic growth

…EU spends 100m euros to support sector

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

The Federal Government, yesterday, said it expects the renewable energy sector to contribute about 9,000 Megawatts of power supply to the country by year 2030 as part of the general vision to end energy poverty in Nigeria.

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, who disclosed this in Abuja at the opening of a summit on accelerated scale up of renewable and distributed energy resources in Nigeria organized by the Nigerian Electricity  Regulatory Commission, NERC, said the government was determined to ensure the provision of affordable and reliable power supply to industries and other institutions.

The Minister noted that without reliable power supply it would be difficult for the country to achieve its economic goals that guarantee jobs and wealth for the people.

He said: “It is disheartening that for decades, Nigerians have been grappling with the challenges of unreliable grid supply with frequent power outages and load shedding severely impacting businesses, industries, and households.

“The lack of grid reliability has hampered economic productivity and deters foreign investment thereby exacerbating unemployment and economic stagnation. We are determined to end that!

Chief Adelabu pointed out that “despite the challenges we face, we are committed to sustaining efforts to de-risk renewable energy generation through the programs such as the Interconnected Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme (IMAS), with technical support from EU and the German government, which is expected to catalyze the deployment of 23 mini-grids across 11 states of the federation to serve over 138,000 Nigerians.

“Our industries, institutions including health institutions and educational institutions must have uninterrupted supply of electricity. The Federal Government of Nigeria’s existing policies and action plans such as the Nigerian National Renewable Energy Action Plan, NREAP, Nigerian Energy Transition Plan, NETP and the nationally determined contribution are manifestations of Nigeria’s commitments to developing renewable energy”.

He expressed confidence that the government’s strategy would be leveraged on to deliver the “targets of 30GW of power supply capacity by year 2030. Of which 30% should come from renewable energy. That is our mission: 30:30:30. By simple arithmetic we are getting nothing less than 9,000MW of renewable energy by the year 2030”.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of NERC, Engr. Sanusi Garba said the push to scale up renewable energy supply would ensure that rural communities were quickly connected to modern sources of electricity.

Engr. Garba said the commission was working to de-risk the reliance on the national grid and the “endless wait for us to build grid infrastructure that is resilient enough to accommodate off-grid renewable power”.

He said the reforms put in place by the commission are geared towards the development of an efficient electricity market and the establishment of a regulatory framework that promotes private investments.

Also speaking, Godfrey Ogbemudia, European Union Delegation in Nigeria, said having spent about 200 million Euros in funding various programmes in the power sector between 2008 and 2020, the EU would be spending another 100 million Euros between 2021 and 2027 to provide additional 400MW from renewable sources to supply electricity to about five million Nigerians.

“The EU has partnered with Nigeria in promoting the adoption of renewable energy in its energy system since 2008, committing approximately EUR 200 million grants until 2020 on various projects focusing on policy, regulations, building the capacity of market participants, and facilitating access to finance in both public and private sectors. As of 2021, we have renewed our efforts to raise our funding further with EUR 100 million primarily through innovative financing, technical assistance, and energy infrastructure projects.

“This will translate into some 400MW of new renewable energy capacity to be installed by 2027, benefiting over five million Nigerians, saving approximately 500,000 tonnes of CO2”, he added.