The
Federal Government on Monday said it had commenced the installation of
electronic monitoring equipment on pipelines that supply gas to power
generation plants following their repeated rupturing by vandals.
According to the government, the gains
recorded in power generation are often rubbished by gas pipelines
vandals, a development that has reduced the country’s generated power
from over 4,100 megawatts in December to a little above 3,000MW early
this month.
The Minister of Power, Prof.Chinedu Nebo,
said that a few days after most parts of the country celebrated the New
Year with stable power, vandals struck by bursting many points on the
main pipelines supplying gas to the power stations.
This, he said in a statement, had
resulted in a steep drop in generation capacity and by extension
available power to the national grid.
He said, “Most of the power supply in
Nigeria is based on gas, with about 70 per cent from gas-fired turbines
and 30 per cent from hydro. When we have a holistic energy mix, things
will get much improved. Oil thieves and vandals who break into our
pipelines make it difficult for Nigerians to even benefit from what this
government has done.
“We have far larger installed capacity
than the power we give out and this is because of gas supply
constraints. That is being taken care of because more forces are being
deployed. Electronic gadgets are being installed to ensure that at any
point of disruption, our security forces will know and know how to
forestall it.”
The minister called for the continuation
of the current power sector reforms, adding that the sector would suffer
seriously if the reforms were disrupted.
He said the introduction of renewable
energy, especially solar power system, had provided electricity to some
rural communities, with a calculated plan to connect the rest within the
shortest possible time.
Nebo said, “Continuity is very essential
and critical because we don’t want a policy summersault. We are now on a
trajectory and we hope to consolidate that trajectory. I see a Nigeria
where hospitals, schools, households in far villages that never thought
of electricity because the national grid cannot get to them, are
connected to power via renewable energy.”
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