Politically speaking, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, inherited several ongoing projects in the power sector that have reached advanced levels and whose completion will definitely improve the performance of the sector and add to the nation’s available capacity. This is the reason such low hanging fruits should be quickly harvested for the benefit of Nigerians and prevent “project clogging” by having too many projects to supervise at the same time.

The Minister had earlier promised that the 700MW Zungeru hydro power station in Niger state will commence commercial operations by the end of November, 2023 but this is yet to be actualized as the station is yet to contribute 1MW to the national grid and has remained shut down after its successful pre-commissioning tests. It is necessary to fix every technical and other limitations preventing the smooth take-off of this station.

Another major ongoing project that has reached advanced stage is the 330kV Benin (North)/Akure/Osogbo line that is designed to complement the existing 330kV Benin/Ihovbor/Osogbo line. The fact that Akure 330/132/33kV substation is ready for commissioning makes it expedient to complete the line and make it available for use.

The advantages of completing this project are legion and include providing additional evacuation corridor for Ihovbor NIPP and Azura IPP gas stations and the ease of carrying-out preventive maintenance. Presently, Azura power station is made to reduce its energy output for up to six hours daily because of preventive maintenance of the only available evacuation line for system security. With an alternative line, this would have been unnecessary.

Also, this project will improve power supply to the capital cities of Akure, Ado-Ekiti and other neighboring towns and will relieve the aged transmission stations of Osogbo and Benin through load transfer to the newly-built Akure station. The completion of this project will be an impetus for power stations like Azura IPP to commence their phase two expansion project, having already acquired land for such.

If the above projects and other ones such as the ongoing Presidential power Initiative (PPI)/Siemens project are concluded, there will not be “project clogging” thereby creating a seamless environment for new projects to come on stream.

Recently, the federal government further signed a PPI agreement between Nigeria and the German government for additional 12,000MW of electricity to the national grid. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) taking place at the Expo city in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In addition, with the power sector witnessing a paradigm shift following the decentralization of electricity from the exclusive list to the concurrent list and states responding to this by establishing their electricity market and building state-owned Independent Power Plants (IPP), we must avoid congestion by plucking identified low hanging fruits through the completion of such projects to allow for the introduction of new ones.

This is where the honorable Minister of Power needs to be pro-active and preferably set up a standing committee to monitor and give routine updates of such projects for the nation to harvest such low hanging fruits for the overall wellbeing of the national economy.