30 Oct 2012
PHCN
Headquarters
By Chineme Okafor
Indications
emerged Monday that Nigeria may be set to further its participation in an
electricity transmission framework, which would see her exchange generated
power with more countries in the West African sub-region.
The General Secretary of West African Power Pool (WAPP), Mr. Amadou Diallo, said within the framework, Nigeria would most likely export excess electricity generated in-country to countries such as Mali, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in the sub-region and at the same time import from these countries through a transmission integration project being executed by WAPP at an estimated cost $26 billion (N4.03 trillion).
The General Secretary of West African Power Pool (WAPP), Mr. Amadou Diallo, said within the framework, Nigeria would most likely export excess electricity generated in-country to countries such as Mali, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in the sub-region and at the same time import from these countries through a transmission integration project being executed by WAPP at an estimated cost $26 billion (N4.03 trillion).
The
amount, according to him, was required to fund an ambitious plan of WAPP to
advance the region’s power generation and transmission infrastructure target
over the next decade.
Under
the plan, WAPP would also embark on the construction of an extensive power
transmission network that would evacuate power from locations with excess power
to other parts of the sub-region in need of electricity and also improve the
regions generation capacity.
Diallo,
at an interaction with journalists at the opening of a weeklong seventh WAPP
General Assembly in Abuja Monday, said the fund would be expended within 2012
and 2025 to put up critical power generation and transmission infrastructure
needed by member states of the region.
He
said: “The $26 billion is what we plan for between 2012 and 2025. Part of it is
for power generation and part of it is transmission. We have so far mobilised
$4 billion and that is under implementation on transmission. We are trying to
mobilise for hydro generation.”
Diallo,
who gave details of Nigeria’s current posture in power trade-off with her
neighbours said: “Nigeria is exchanging power now with other countries such as
Togo, Benin, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, and Niger and very soon to Mali, Senegal and
other countries like Liberia and Guinea.
“The
interconnectivity system we are putting in place is to put all ECOWAS member
states together through the electrical transmission network. Right now we have
Nigeria, Benin Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Mali, Senegal
and Mauritania interconnected through the inter-region. We are also working on
some hydro power plants in Mali and working for the rehabilitation of Jebba in
Nigeria.”
In
his explanation of Nigeria’s justification for trading power with other
countries when she can barely meet her electricity needs, Diallo stated: ‘’By
saying that Nigeria is giving power to those who have better than them, I think
you have to soften it because it is not really the truth, you cannot give power
to a country who have more than you have.”
Similarly,
the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr.
Olusola Akinniraye, debunked insinuations of Nigeria’s power trade-off with her
neighbours.
He
said: “I would not want to subscribe to that notion that they have more power
than us. First and foremost, it is a little bit impossible that we can be
giving out much more than we need.
“The
issue of giving power to our West African sub-region is part of what we look at
as integration. It is because the market has not really grown to a mature
state, otherwise, if look at Europe, at different times between France and
United Kingdom, they have the interconnecting lines.
When
a particular country needs more and they have more than required at that
particular time in another country they send to that end. So it is two ended
thing that you can pass power on both sides. This is the ultimate aim of the
West African Power Pool, we don’t supply more to these countries than we
actually use.”
WAPP
is a cooperation of national electricity companies in the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region that was founded in 2000 and works
towards establishing a reliable power grid for the region and a common market
for electricity. So far, 11 out of the 15 ECOWAS member states have their
transmission network interconnected on the WAPP platform.
