Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Power, in a bid to address the frequent collapse of the national grid, had a session with a South Korean energy firm for a mini-grid solution.
The committee chaired by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, told the Energy firm from South Korea that what Nigeria and Nigerians want, is to get rid of the incessant grid collapse and epileptic power supply that it claimed has grounded businesses in the country for years.
Abaribe told the energy investor that basic infrastructure of power is what the country needs, having over the years been stuck with 4, 000MW of electricity generation due to a lack of transmission infrastructure to wheel any generation above that, to the distribution channels.
He said, “Our major concern as a committee and by extension as a people, is how to break the bond and bridge the yawning gap of insufficient power generation in the country.
“We want you to be very practical in your submission for us to buy into whatever new technology or idea you have brought, which should serve as expected solutions for us.”
Responding, the South Korean-based Energy represented by Haeagwoo Lee and Sangwoo Park, said a mini-grid approach should be adopted by the Nigerian government, in order to solve the incessant problem of epileptic power supply in the country.
According to Lee, South Korea which has a population of about 50m people has 130, 000 megawatts of electricity generation which is not loaded on a single or national grid alone.
“There is a need for decentralisation when it comes to wheeling or transmission of power generation to avoid waste or incessant collapse.
“Nigeria is even a very lucky country where coconut is largely produced agriculturally. This can be converted to graphene for power generation as done in South Korea. Coconut trees can also be used to build a generating plant in any neighbourhood,” he said.
