Buhari urges stronger power regulation, penalties for firms
President Muhammadu Buhari has urged power utility regulators across West Africa to ensure strong and proactive regulation, and apply penalties on electricity firms if they can’t give quality service.
Buhari made the call yesterday in speech read on his behalf by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, at the 14th Session of the General Assembly of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) in Abuja.
He said, “Local and regional regulation must be strong. It must be firm, effective, proactive, technology and knowledge-driven. This is the sure way of deriving quality performance from service providers. Regulations must be taken seriously and penalties applied when necessary to instill discipline in the entire market.”
He said the North Core Transmission Project launched on Thursday by WAPP include 876 kilometres, 330KV transmission line from Kainji in Nigeria through the Republics of Niger, Benin and Togo and terminating in the Republic of Burkina Faso.
“It will facilitate a huge power exchange in the region. This and all the other projects in the WAPP master plan should be vigorously pursued by all stakeholders,” he said.
The Minister of Power, Engr. Saleh Mamman, said he was impressed with WAPP’s role of interconnecting the 16 member countries of ECOWAS.
“Considering the electricity challenges of our various countries, the way forward for the region is to ensure the integration of our power systems,” he added.
Mamman said Nigeria has abundant gas resources and that the present administration is strengthening power sector capacity to generate and export low cost electricity in the region.
He listed projects like the 3,050 megawatts (MW) Mambilla hydropower plant and the 330KV Nigeria, Niger to Burkina Faso interconnection project meant to support regional electricity growth.
The chairman, Executive Board of WAPP, Mr Usman Gur Mohammed, expressed the hope that 2020 would mark a significant landmark in the effort to create a functional electricity market, with the completion of the Ivory Coast-Sierra LeoneGuinea interconnection line and the Guinea Bissau to Senegal and Gambia line.
Mohammed, who is also the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), said the WAPP Information and Coordination Centre (ICC) in Benin Republic would be completed in 2020 and equipped to monitor power exchanges and trade across West Africa.
The Managing Director of Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited (MESL), Engr. Lamu Audu, said the firm seeks to recover more capacity and is currently rehabilitating the Kainju Unit 1G7 which upon completion next year would add 80MW to the national grid.
“We are also executing contract to recover Jebba Unit 2G6 which will add another 96.4MW,” he said.