By Salif Atojoko

Mr Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, on Monday, said the Federal Government was planning to introduce the distributed solar power model in northern states.

Adelabu said this while briefing State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“We believe that the most effective way of supplying uninterrupted, electricity to the northern part of Nigeria is through distributed power model, whereby each of the northern states will have an embedded utility, solar source.

“All the states will be insulated and immune from each other, and we have actually made progress on this.

“We have interested contractors and financiers that are ready to install  a 100 megawatt for each of the 20 northern states, which is scalable to 50 megawatt at first, then upgraded 100 megawatts.

“When we have this, the power supply to the North will be reliable because of the advantage of the sun that they have, where solar will be highly effective,” said Adelabu.

He said with this scheme, the pressure on the national grid from the northern part of Nigeria would be lower, and Nigerians would be able to enjoy better electricity supply.

“When we talk about a final volume of 100 megawatts for each of the northern states, this includes targeting not just households, we looking at offices.

“We’re looking at institutions, both health and educational institutions, and we’re looking at industrial clusters that are the major consumers of power.

“We will start from having 50 megawatt for each of the states, which we believe will go around whatever activities that happen in all of the northern states on a state by state basis,” he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Vivian Ihechu