Electricity: Expert Recommends Breakdown Of DISCO Zones Into States

Electricity: Expert Recommends Breakdown Of DISCO Zones Into States
By Oyeniran Apata, Lagos
A Professor of power and control engineering, Engineer Nwoye Okafor, has recommended a breakdown of the distribution zones as presently constituted to allow for at most one distribution company per state.
 He stated this over the weekend at the second induction ceremony and admission of into the engineering profession of the 2014/2015 engineering graduates of the Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun state.
 In his assessment of electricity distribution and generation in the country, in a paper titled, “Seminal Findings on Sustainable Power Supply Reliability in Nigeria”. Prof. Okafor stated that the size of the DISCOS under the present arrangement had made operations of the companies unmanageable.
“This would make the companies more manageable and would significantly reduce the exposure of the states connected to a distribution company should one company or more fail,” he added.
 He called for further collaborations between state governments and the distribution companies in planning to help solve state’s peculiar energy challenges, saying that such understanding would help in putting in place policies and infrastructure to help the load for distribution and improve the local economy and job creation.
 Describing investments in the sector as inadequate, he stated that a comprehensive review of the world-wide electric energy investments conducted by the organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (QECD) and the  International Energy Association (IEA) in 2003 estimated that $9.8 trillion Dollars as the investment needed to meet expected power demand from 2001 to 2030.
 He added that the risk of under investment is perhaps greatest in many African countries and India, saying that countries like Nigeria in this category must look beyond their national income to private lenders for the required investments put at $170 billion annually for generation, transmission and distribution.
 The 2003 visiting Professor of the Institute of Electrical Power and High Voltage Engineering, Technical University of Dresden, Germany, described meter tampering by electricity consumers in the country as a shameless conspiracy between marketers and consumers.
 He made a case for the appointment of professionals to manage the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), investment in research and development, and urged the government to put an end to the importation of all power infrastructure, components and technological development.
 These, he said, had robbed the country of the needed growth in the sector as the blind must not be appointed to lead the blind.