Bayelsa and Benue State governments yesterday announced measures to provide stable power to residents and industries.
While Bayelsa is mulling 13 mini-grids to complement its 60-megawatt turbine, Benue announced a move to build a $4 billion hydro power plant in Makurdi, the state capital.
Director General, Bayelsa Electricity Regulatory Agency(BERA), Rosalyn Dressman, said during the Southsouth Reawakening Group Roundtable Series in Yeangoa said the state government, in collaboration with the German Development Organisation (GIZ) and the Nigerian Energy Support Programme, is already collating data for the establishment of the mini-grids.
The roundtable series was themed ‘Bayelsa Power Infrastructure and Its Value Chain Objectives.’
Dressman said the regulatory agency has designed an Integrated Resource Plan that focuses on demand and load forecasting, establish conditions of existing assets and comparing supply and network options.
According to her, the integrated resource plan also identifies the least-cost options for meeting service requirements, while also considering resilience and the objectives of each project.
Managing Director, Bayelsa Electricity Company Ltd, Olice Kemenanabo, identified poor network as the principal reason many homes do not have power.
Kemenanabo said although the Electricity Act provides for regulatory arrangements where state and interstate interests are involved, it does not eliminate the franchise owner.
His words: ‘The law provides for regulatory arrangements where state and interstate interests are involved. But that does not mean that the interstate dimension somehow eliminates the franchise owner or extinguishes the rights and obligations associated with that franchise.
‘The assets and the franchise arrangements remain governed by the applicable legal framework. The fact that a state now has regulatory responsibilities does not, by itself, mean that the distribution network operated under an existing franchise can simply be excised from that distribution company and unilaterally vested in the state.
‘There is no provision, to my understanding, that says that once a state establishes a regulatory agency, it should automatically take over the network of another distribution company and drive the franchise owner away.’
SSRG Convener Joseph Ambakaderimo described the Electricity Act, 2023 as a structural shift that ’empowers states with the authority to shape their own electricity markets, opening the door to innovation, investment, and locally driven solutions.’
Ambakaderimo said the transition from a centralised state-led electricity market represents both an opportunity and a responsibility.
He warned that decentralisation, if not properly coordinated, risks fragmentation, highlighting overlaps between federal and state jurisdictions in transmission and distribution.
‘At the South South Reawakening Group, we believe that reforms alone do not deliver outcomes; execution does, and execution requires dialogue, alignment and collaboration,’ the SERG convener stated.
In Makurdi, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Benue Investment Promotion Agency (BENIPA), Johnpaul Kpenkaan, told reporters that the $4 billion plant, if executed, will generate 1,650Megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The initiative, according to Kpenkaan, is part of Governor Hyacinth Alia administration’s broader efforts to strengthen the state’s infrastructure and create the energy foundation required to support industrial and economic development.