Gencos fault Siemens power intervention
Peter Uzoho
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which has been with the National Assembly for years would complete its enactment process in the present Ninth Assembly.
This is even as the power generation companies (GenCos) faulted the plan by the federal government and Siemens AG to raise the country’s power supply to 25,000 megawatts by 2025
NNPC Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, stated this yesterday in Lagos while delivering his keynote address at the 2019 Conference and Awards ceremony of the Nigerian Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC).
The theme of the conference was: “Harnessing Oil and Gas Potential for National Development.”
Kyari, who was represented at the occasion by the NNPC Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Umar Isa Ajiya, reiterated the significance of the bill to attract more investments in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
He reaffirmed the corporation’s commitment to raise the country’s oil reserve to 40 billion barrels, and increase daily production to three million barrels.
Kyari said: “While we aspire to achieve these huge goals of growing reserves, expanding the frontiers of our production and exploring the renewable energy landscape, it is given that the industry requires an enabling environment to attract the right investment that is being subdued by our fiscal regimes.
“The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) must run its full cycle this Ninth National Assembly, implying that there is absolute need to fast track its enactment processes.
Meanwhile, the power generation companies have criticised the plan by the federal government and Siemens AG to raise the country’s power supply to 25,000 megawatts by 2025.
Speaking in a panel session at the NAEC conference, the Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), Dr. Joy Ogaji, said Siemens excluded them in its plan to expand the nation’s power supply.
According to her, Siemens held meeting with the distribution companies (DisCos) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) without deeming it necessary to discuss with GenCos.
“Permit me to use this word. There has been a silosised methodology in the Nigerian power sector. Everybody seems to be working in silos. Siemens has agreed with the federal government to raise the capacity.
“I wonder how Siemens will achieve its plan of expanding the nation’s power supply without discussing with the generation companies. They held meetings with the DisCos and the TCN and left the generation companies out of their discussion. We want to see how they will achieve that,” Ogaji said.
She added that the generation companies were incurring more losses from the power they generate, noting that out of about 7,000 megawatts they generate, 6625MW are not paid for by the DisCos.
This, she said, was contrary to what was agreed in the contract. She explained that under the contract, they were told that whatever they generate, whether utilised or not, would be paid for.
Ogaji, however, decried the huge policy gap in the nation’s power sector, saying there is need for proper coordination in the gas to power value chain.
“The government and the operators need to work together. We believe the sector will work. For government, we need policy. There is serious lacuna in the power sector. There is a lot of vacuum. The new Minister of Power is an engineer. So he should look at policies to improve the energy sector,” she added.
