Monday, August 30, 2010
Nigerian Government Publishes its New Power Reform Roadmap
President Jonathan last week launched the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform. The roadmap which is based on implementing the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 seeks to promote a private-sector led electricity industry.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Odujinrin & Adefulu launches the Local Content Key Issues Analysis Series (LCKIAs)
he LCKIA series provides practical and concise analysis of the critical requirements of Nigeria's new local content legislation. The first article in the series on the Nigerian Content Plan may be found here
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Nigeria to hold oil bid round this year
Thisday reports that the Federal Government is to hold a bid round sometime this year. The bid round is likely to primarily be for small fields, although some large fields may be included. It is not clear under what rules the bid round would be held in view of the continued delay of the Petroleum Industry Bill.
Friday, December 11, 2009
PIB may not be passed by the end of the year
Senator Lee Maeba, the chairman of the senate committee on upstream petroleum, according to Next has chastised Emmanuel Egbogah, the senior special adviser to the president on petroleum matters for stating that the PIB would be passed by the end of the year. According to Maeba, the executive cannot speak for the legislature in terms of when a bill would be passed. Whilst we agree with this statement in principle, we must nevertheless reiterate that the delayed passage of the PIB has significantly impacted oil and gas investment in Nigeria. We encourage the legislature to use their best efforts in ensuring that a good bill is passed as soon as possible.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
More from Law Inter Alia Blog
Ayisha from Law Inter Alia;s response to our comments and our follow up.
Ayisha
"Creative Energy you are right about power generation being decentralised under the 1999 Constitution but isn't the interpretation of the relevant sections in doubt if State generating and distributing power have to go through a federal agency such as NERC? what was the story between Lagos and FGN regarding the Enron barge during TInubu and Obasanjo's time? Why is there a limit to what states and IPPs can generate and distribute outside of the national grid? I also agree about unbundling but as long as we do not solve the gas problems and the 'price of electricity' problems (the FGN is the largest customer and I dare say biggest debtor of NEPA) and have a proper legislative framework in place...unbundling will do little for us."
Creative Energy
There is actually no limit to what the States can generate and distribute outside the national grid. The main problem is that the cheapest (and probably the most efficient) way to distribute power generated is through the existing national grid. The costs of developing another grid, which is isolated to a particular state or neighboring states is likely to be very high (perhaps prohibitive), which is why States like Lagos, who have tried to organise power generation, have passed this power on to the national grid for transmission and distribution. The controversy between Lagos and the Federal Government was essentially that Lagos wanted the power being generated by Enron (and being transmitted to the national grid) to be isolated to Lagos State i.e. that Lagos State should get the additional 300 or so MW being generated. My vague recollection was that the FG initially agreed to this but later reneged. The problem appears to be that the FG (being in control of the national grid) may want to allocate electricity in a politically expedient fashion.
Ayisha
"Creative Energy you are right about power generation being decentralised under the 1999 Constitution but isn't the interpretation of the relevant sections in doubt if State generating and distributing power have to go through a federal agency such as NERC? what was the story between Lagos and FGN regarding the Enron barge during TInubu and Obasanjo's time? Why is there a limit to what states and IPPs can generate and distribute outside of the national grid? I also agree about unbundling but as long as we do not solve the gas problems and the 'price of electricity' problems (the FGN is the largest customer and I dare say biggest debtor of NEPA) and have a proper legislative framework in place...unbundling will do little for us."
Creative Energy
There is actually no limit to what the States can generate and distribute outside the national grid. The main problem is that the cheapest (and probably the most efficient) way to distribute power generated is through the existing national grid. The costs of developing another grid, which is isolated to a particular state or neighboring states is likely to be very high (perhaps prohibitive), which is why States like Lagos, who have tried to organise power generation, have passed this power on to the national grid for transmission and distribution. The controversy between Lagos and the Federal Government was essentially that Lagos wanted the power being generated by Enron (and being transmitted to the national grid) to be isolated to Lagos State i.e. that Lagos State should get the additional 300 or so MW being generated. My vague recollection was that the FG initially agreed to this but later reneged. The problem appears to be that the FG (being in control of the national grid) may want to allocate electricity in a politically expedient fashion.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Recent comment on Law Inter Alia Blog
Please see below our recent comment to this post on Law Inter Alia.
"To a large extent Power generation is already decentralised under the constitution. Under Nigeria's constitution, legislation in relation to power is a concurrent issue - the Federal Government can legislate on national grid related power, whilst state governments can legislate on off-grid power. Therefore under the current structure, states can improve their power base by installing distributed energy across their states. Granted, this would be an expensive exercise, but under the circumstances it is the only option left for states. In terms of restructuring the industry, I think the federal government should also focus on finishing the unbundling process started by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act. Additionally, it should seek to establish a credit worthy offtaker or offtakers for new private power plants."
"To a large extent Power generation is already decentralised under the constitution. Under Nigeria's constitution, legislation in relation to power is a concurrent issue - the Federal Government can legislate on national grid related power, whilst state governments can legislate on off-grid power. Therefore under the current structure, states can improve their power base by installing distributed energy across their states. Granted, this would be an expensive exercise, but under the circumstances it is the only option left for states. In terms of restructuring the industry, I think the federal government should also focus on finishing the unbundling process started by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act. Additionally, it should seek to establish a credit worthy offtaker or offtakers for new private power plants."
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