Politically speaking, Nigeria presently generates electricity from a mix of hydro and thermal with the hydro stations of Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro, Zungeru, Dadin-Kowa while some of the thermal stations include Egbin, Paras, Afam IV and VI, Okpai, Azura and the NIPP stations of Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Sapele, Alaoji, Odukpani, Ihovbor, Geregu etc.
However, Nigeria is just exploring renewable sources like solar, and wind for power generation and as one of the African countries blessed with abundant natural resources like coal that can be used for power generation, it is time for the government at both federal and state levels to consider building coal power plants so as to use this free gift of nature for power generation.
Nigeria’s large coal deposits can be found in Enugu, Kogi, Adamawa, Benue, Edo, Plateau, Abia, Anambra, Bauchi, Kwara, Ondo, Imo, Delta states and can generate about 53,000MW of electricity for the country and thereby has the potential to increase the country’s generation capacity.
The government must have the political will to shun pressure from developed countries who will attempt to discourage developing countries from maximizing the use of their resources to better the lives of their citizens on the ground of environmental and climate change arguments.
While we must take effective and conscious measures to protect the earth, it should be stressed that Nigeria’s coal is among the purest with little impurities that will have minimal adverse effect on the environment.
What is required is for such explorative and mining activities to be well regulated and the environment kept clean. After all, the truth is that illegal mining and explorative activities inundate different parts of Nigeria where mineral resources are located from Zamfara to Osun, Nasarawa, Edo, the entire Niger Delta region and other states of the federation.
With the nation’s huge energy deficit, both the federal and state governments as well as the private sector must put in every effort to bridge the gap by attracting investment into the power sector in order to drastically cut down the current high cost of production thereby bringing down the prices of goods and services for the overall benefit of Nigerians and the export market.
Last but not the least, the national grid will tremendously be a beneficiary of an expanded generation mix because generators of different mix have distinct characteristics that complement each other thus enhancing the robustness, reliability and security of the system.