The Senate yesterday resolved to probe Nigeria’s electricity generating companies (Gencos) and distribution companies (Discos) over the deteriorating state of power supply in the country.

It has, therefore, mandated its Committee on Power headed by former Governor of Benue State, Senate Gabriel Suswan, to within four weeks, investigate the activities of the power generating and distribution companies with a view to unravelling the cause of unsteady power supply in Nigeria.

This was sequel to the adoption of a motion titled “Addressing Nigeria’s power problems”, sponsored by Senator Chukwuka Utazi, who disclosed that Nigeria, with a population of 200 million and an annual growth rate of 2.6 per cent, is the seventh most populous nation on earth.

According to him, the power generation or installed capacity of Nigeria in relation to its population and Gross Domestic Product cannot place the country to compete favourably in terms of development with other nations.

He, therefore, called on the federal government to find solutions to the power deficits faced by the country.

Citing Indonesia and Philippines as examples, the senator noted that both countries with a population of 267 million and 107 million, respectively, have installed power capacity of 60,000 megawatts and generating capacity of 42,465 megawatts as well as installed capacity of 20,055 megawatts and generating capacity of 16,271 megawatts.

While expressing optimism that the nation can set a realisable target of generating capacity of 100,000 megawatts in the next 10 years, Utazi said same can be achieved through a mix of energy sources such as natural gas, hydro, coal, wind and renewable energy.

The Chairman of Senate Committee on Primary Healthcare and Communicable Diseases added that the various zones in the country are naturally positioned to take advantage of the various energy mix and renewables, particularly solar energy.

“The northern part of the country with vast expanse of land can tap into large solar farms while the southern parts of the country with significant reserves of natural gas and coal can generate power from same. Both the north and South have large water bodies that can still be dammed for hydro”.

He further posited that Nigeria can improve on its transmission infrastructure by up-scaling its networks from the current 330kv and 132kv to 765kv super grid to enable big power plants to send power through such grid over long distances.

Utazi added that beyond generation and transmission, Distribution Companies (Discos) lack the financial and technical capacities required, thereby resulting in their inability to pay for power which Generation Companies (Gencos) deliver to the grid.

Underscoring the motive behind the privatisation of the power sector in 2013, the senator emphasised that the objective in privatising power distribution assets was not to achieve highest financial bids, but rather to get capable companies that can achieve the lowest Average Technical Commercial and Collection losses within five years.

Contributing to the motion, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Communication, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, said the failure of the power sector was largely due to the refusal of the leadership of past governments to embrace new ideas.

According to her, “government should embrace new ideas that would take Nigeria to the next level.”

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