Six million meters will be rolled out across the country in the first and second quarters of this year to reduce the number of unmetered electricity consumers in Nigeria, the Federal Government said.
It was disclosed in a December 2022 paper on the Nigerian Electricity Sector/Electricity Supply Industry Performance Review under the current administration.
In the document, which was obtained by our Federal Energy Ministry correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, the government said it had successfully executed a post-privatization metering initiative with one million meters deployed in the first phase of the National Metering Program. Mass Measurement.
Energy Minister Abubakar Aliyu said the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission were instrumental in designing and implementing this programme.
He said: “We are refining plans for an additional six million meters in the second and third phases of the program to start in the first and second quarters of 2023, respectively.
“The first phase generated 10,000 jobs in installation and assembly and we anticipate that more than 20,000 additional jobs will be created in the second phase. Both phases have sustainable financing structures”.
He said the government was also establishing a Meter Service Fund that would allow for continuous metering at the NESI.
Aliyu said the government would bequeath Nigerians 4,000 megawatts of additional generation capacity as it completes and inaugurates the 700MW Zungeru hydroelectric plant in the first quarter of 2023.
“We will also take care of the commissioning of the 240MW Afam III and the 300MW Okpai Phase II, to name a few. We will put the country on a stable path for 10,000MW of power supplied,” he stated.
The minister added: “Today we are at 8,000MW with 5,000MW on-grid and 3,000MW+ of isolated captive industrial, and we will leave an installed capacity of almost 22,000MW. We also have strong programs in place with facilities and investments secured in excess of $3 billion to close the huge gap between our transmission capacity and the power delivered.”
He said that the hydroelectric component of the Kashimbilla Multipurpose Dam was designed and upgraded from 6MW to 40MW with Phase I of the evacuation infrastructure completed in March 2020, covering 245km of
132kV transmission lines and three substations, connecting Takum, Wukari, Rafin Kada, Dounga and Yandev in Taraba and Benue states.
Aliyu said: “Phase II of the evacuation infrastructure is currently at a 45 percent completion level covering a 56 km extension of the 132 kV transmission line from Yandev to Makurdi and full rehabilitation of the substation. from Yandev.
“Phase II of the evacuation infrastructure would lead to the electrification of 24 host communities, including Zaki-Biam, Anyi, Buruku, Birama, Bibi, Shibong, among others, within Benue State.
“We have changed the narrative of the sector from consumer spending (in subsidies) to real spending on infrastructure. A total of 105 power transformer projects were completed during the 2015-2022 period, adding 6,216MVA capacity to the grid, with 73 of the power transformers installed by TCN engineers in substations across the country.”
