File photo: Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe
The Federal Government has raised the alarm that some companies in Lagos State are stealing as much as 150 megawatts of electricity daily by connecting their factories directly to the national grid without the consent of the distribution companies in their area, threatening to recover charges from the companies.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said the government was going after the unnamed companies as part of efforts to reduce technical losses in the grid and improve electricity supply.
Speaking recently at an energy forum in Lagos, Tegbe disclosed that the high-profile energy theft was discovered while the government was making efforts to fix the electricity challenges along the Lagos corridor.
“I need to fix Lagos. In the middle of trying to fix Lagos, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, do you know there are some people that are also directly connecting factories to the grid, taking as much as 150 megawatts every day? That’s energy theft. And I’m not talking about individual houses; I’m talking about companies.
“We’re going after those companies. We’ll collect back charges from them, and we’ll make sure that the technical loss factor in the grid is reduced,” Tegbe said.
The minister also disclosed that development finance institutions had committed about $18bn to Nigeria’s power sector, but faulted the prioritisation of investments, saying some projects had been implemented based on political patronage.
“Now, have we been spending money? Yes, we’ve been spending money. It will interest the audience here that we have about $18bn commitment in the power sector today from DFIs. But we’ve not been prioritising what we’re doing. We’ve been implementing projects based on political patronage. Now we’re taking a second look at it,” he said.
Earlier, the minister had stated that the government had commenced a nationwide technical audit to identify specific faults in the electricity infrastructure and ensure that interventions addressed the actual problems.
He attributed some of the sector’s challenges to ageing transmission infrastructure, saying parts of the network had been in place for about 50 years.
The minister said the government is also building a new National Control Centre to replace the existing facility in Osogbo, which he said was constructed in 1962.
Tegbe said efforts to isolate Lagos and Abuja from disturbances elsewhere on the grid had contributed to improved stability, adding that the government was working to prevent problems in one location from affecting another.
On funding and investment in the sector, he said the government was working on two companies, the Grid Asset Management Company and the Renewable Asset Management Company, to consolidate infrastructure assets and use their balance sheets to raise funds.
“The third pillar of what we’re doing, and things that need to change with coordinated planning, is liquidity, market liquidity, and credit. The reality today is that no investor will come with the kind of antecedents that we have. So, what are we doing? Clear that legacy debt. But then, create two companies: one is Grid Asset Management Company, and one is Renewable Asset Management Company.
“For the first time, we are collating and consolidating the assets we have in the grid assets and the renewable assets so that we can have an entity that can leverage the balance sheet of those assets and use that balance sheet to actually raise funds, rather than going to bond or trying to raise debt,” he said.
Tegbe maintained that the President had approved the RAMCO while work was ongoing on the framework for the GAMCO.