'Don't Expect Steady Power Supply Until 2017'

Investors in the power sector may need up to four years to fix issues in the Nigerian electricity market before consumers start benefitting from the transfer of ownership of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) assets to the private sector, industry analysts have said.

To this end, they have advised consumers not to expect any significant improvement in the immediate term until after four years.

The issues, according to them, include metering and transformer audit, upgrade of grid levels, and manpower training requirements.

“It would take a duration of three to four years before requisite manpower can be developed, just as it will take considerable time to carry out necessary due diligence to ascertain the actual number of consumers and level of manpower needed,” the say.

The analysts, however, identified upgrade of the current grid levels as the most complex challenge.

They further say, “Knowing the grid requirement would enable them reduce technical losses as it would aid them to determine areas that would require transformers, those places that have weak distribution lines, and consumers that need to be metered as well as other activities that will reduce technical losses.”

It would take about 36 months to train the level of manpower that would be competent enough to handle the industry, said the analysts, adding that the real technical input that would be required in the distribution networks alone was yet to be ascertained because in-depth due diligence was yet to be carried out by the investors. They, however, said the investors do have a fair knowledge of what they have bought.