Lagos to go off national grid, plans to generate its own electricity

Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of Lagos state, through is commissioner for energy and mineral resources, Olawale Oluwo, Lagos has announced an ambitious plan of taking Nigeria’s economic capital off the national grid and generate the electricity needs of the state without relying on the Federal Government.

Oluwo revealed the features of the state’s power plan on Wednesday, at the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) power and utilities roundtable.

“With a population of less than 30 million, Egypt generates 35,000MW, while South Africa generates about 50,000MW for a population of 50 million. In comparison, Nigeria generates about 4,000MW for a population of over 170 million,” Oluwo said.

He said the demand for power in Lagos state is up to 5,000MW, which Nigeria  itself cannot produce at this time.

“The wheeling capacity of the (national) grid is very weak because the transmission infrastructure is old, dilapidated and susceptible to frequent breakdown. It is not a smart grid.”

He added that the state was seeking means of generating power that are “exclusive of national grid and bypassing the transmission network”.

Oluwo also stated that the Akinwuunmi Ambode led administration, was working on “embedded power”, which seeks “to ensure 24/7 power within Lagos”.

Although Oluwo lamented that the nation’s constitution has held  many states away from power generation, he listed how Lagos had been generating power off the national grid.

“In the Nigerian Constitution, power is on the exclusive list, which means the state government has very limited control of power especially as it pertains to the national grid,” he said.

“So Lagos has had to be creative in finding a solution which necessitated in the development of the state’s captive power initiative. To date five Independent Captive Power Plants have been built and commissioned with an accumulated capacity of 47.5Megawatts of electricity, which provides power to enable government deliver better services and free up power to the grid.”