NIGERIA –The Federal Government of Nigeria has partnered with Siemens AG for the expansion of the country’s national grid capacity to 25,000MW to enhance efficiency in electricity transmission and distribution.
The agreement formalized by a pre-engineering contract forms the first step in the Presidential Power Initiative inaugurated last year which seeks to transform Nigeria’s electricity industry.
Siemens now has the greenlight to begin pre-engineering work on the transmission, distribution and meter data management systems infrastructure.
A report by Africa Energy Portal revealed that comprehensive studies and power systems analysis software for the Nigerian utilities are included in the work package.
The contract with Siemens is meant to upgrade the Nigerian national electricity network to achieve 25,000MW of operation capacity up from the current average of 4,500MW.
The national grid capacity upgrade according to Africa Energy Portal will take place through a series of projects which should span three phases.
Nigeria’s power system suffers from a huge imbalance between what it generates and the demand from users.
Though it has the capacity to generate 8,000MW of operational power, only 4,500MW reliably reaches consumers.
Brownouts and blackouts are a regular feature of life in Nigeria, constraining the country’s economic development.
Phase one of the PPI will focus on essential and quick-win measures to increase the grid’s operation capacity to 7,000MW.
As part of this first phase Siemens will provide general technical training on core competency areas to employees of Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, and regulators, on all the equipment and software being provided by Siemens.
Phase 2 will target remaining network bottlenecks to enable full use of existing generation and distribution capacities, bringing the systems’ operational capacity to 11,000 MW.
Phase 3 of the project will see upgrading of the grid to 25,000 MW and will include upgrades and expansions in both generation, transmission and distribution.
Minister of Finance, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, explained that her government loses more than US$1billion annually due to technical and commercial inefficiencies along the electrification value chain.
Raising the operational electricity capacity to 25,000MW would thus improve access and reliability of power supply to the Nigerian people.
The public-private initiative will also facilitate the creation of jobs while generating new opportunities for small and medium enterprises eventually resulting in an increase Nigeria’s GDP while boosting economic productivity.
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