Oscarline Onwuemenyi
20 March 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) has predicted a growth of up to 100,000 megawatts electricity generation in the country by 2030.
The ECN’s Director-General, Prof. Eli Bala, who made the projection in an interview in Abuja, said that it would be possible with an annual economic growth rate of 7 per cent and steady implementation of the national energy plan by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
Prof. Bala noted that with the current reforms in the Power sector, there would be an improvement in power supply, adding, however, that the commission would equally have to improve its capacity to to transmit and distribute the power generated.
He noted that, “With the incremental power programme; every time, every year, we must have increment in power generation. We will also increase our capacity to transmit as well as the capacity to distribute.
“So I think we are on course, although it is not easy. Very soon, we will get to a level where we will have a 100,000 megawatt or 100 gigawatt by 2030 and the economy growing at the rate of about 7 per cent annually.”
Bala, who said the legal mandate of the commission is to produce strategic plans and coordinate national policies, stressed that, “For you to have something, you must plan for it. If you look at the strategic plans we have produced, we produced an Energy Master plan and in particular with respect to electricity generation.
“We were the first to articulate the various energy mix including what I have told you; renewable and also the nuclear. We made a plan in such a manner that we project by 2030, if the economy is to grow at 7 per cent, we need nothing less than 100 gigawatts of electricity capacity.
“And also, you know our politicians want the economy to grow by double digit. If the economy is to grow by double digit, we need nothing less than 300 gigawatts by 2030.
“I think knowing what you want is a very important thing. If you don’t know what you want, you are going nowhere,” he said.
