Govt Excuses For Power Outages Heartbreaking, Disappointing– Alaje

A senior economist at SPM Professionals, Paul Alaje, has described the excuses made by the Federal Government and transmission company for the power failure and load shedding experienced in the country as ‘heart breaking.’

The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, had during a briefing in Abuja said that the poor state of power supply being experienced across the country was caused by a reduction in hydro capacity during the dry season.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria had last Tuesday blamed Generating Companies (GenCos) for the shortfalls in power supply.

TCN said electricity generation has reduced by 4,247 megawatt due to poor gas supply, fault and technical problems in 14 gas power generating stations.

“A summary of the power generating profiles in the last two months, for instance, clearly shows that fourteen gas powered generating stations were either not generating at all or had limited generation at various times within the period.

“This has further depleted the quantum of power generation available for transmission into the grid on a daily basis,” TCN said in a statement.

Alaje who spoke on Arise TV said the ‘blame game’ does not proffer solution to the menace which he said is a threat to the national economy.

He said, “It is a disappointment and something that broke the heart and I also saw it as a blame game. TCN is saying that it is not the fault of the company and not so much power is available for distribution companies to make available for Nigerians, that most of these problems come from the generating companies.

“When you look at the GenCos, they also enumerated a number of power losses. They have told us a lot of things that are the challenges.

“Unfortunately, the statement did not reveal how to solve the problem of power which of course is fundamental liberation of any country.

“Without power, I’m afraid, no matter what size Nigeria takes in terms of population or how many things we are able to do, there is nothing much we can do without power.”

The FG allowed the private sector to take over the distribution of power assets on November 1, 2013.

The 2013 power privatisation saw the Power holding Company of Nigeria unbundled to allow successful investors to be given 11 DisCos and Six GenCos and a transmission company.

But Alaje said, ” Those with the capacity were never brought onboard. This is why I think that those managing the power sector in Nigeria dont have so much at stake.”

He said there is no vertical competition, adding that “what we have in Nigeria today is a horizontal competition where there is no particular price competition among the so-called competitors.”

He said for instance in the Federal Capital Territory where Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (ADEC) is the sole distributor, consumers do not have alternatives.

“If I say I don’t want to use AEDC as a distribution company or I don’t want TCN to transmit power to me, which other option do I have?” Alaje added.