Energy mix, panacea for electricity challenges – Economist
By Chimezie Anaso
An Economist, Prof. Uche Nwogwugwu, has called on the Federal Government to consider an energy mix option as a way to solving the power crisis in the country.
Nwogwugwu, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, said the recent hike in electricity tariff amounted to forcing the people to pay for inefficiency in the sector.
The Don who lectures in the Department of Economics, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, said the energy sector was so crucial and strategic that it could not be powered solely by hydro sources.
Nwogwugwu said apart from generating inadequate quantity of electricity, lots of energy was lost in course of transmission and storage.
“As it is today, it is clear to everybody that the electricity sector has not been able to deliver.
“The recent tariff increase was not necessary and the categorisation makes no sense because it boils down to households which are the majority.
“No part of the chain from generation to transmission and distribution has been efficient, we have problems of low generation, grid collapse and poor supply, so people and industries fall back largely to self generated electricity,” he said.
Nwogwugwu, therefore, recommended the energy mix model which involved exploring other energy sources such as solar, coal and windmill to complement the hydro source.
He said the Geometric Electric Aba example had shown that opening the sector to competition would yield greater output and good pricing provided that only competent firms were given the opportunity to be involved in the industry.
“No country relies solely in one source of energy, most of them have a mix of energy sources and these are employed depending on access, season and cost,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Vincent Obi
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