The Enugu State Government says it will increase the state’s electricity capacity from the current 70 megawatts received from the national grid to 700 megawatts through private sector investment.

Gov. Peter Mbah said this in Enugu on Tuesday during a Stakeholders’ Engagement and Consultation, organised by the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC) to review it’s draft regulatory instruments in the state capital.

Mbah said that increasing electricity capacity was in line with his administration’s vision to meet the state’s power needs and grow the state economy from $4.

He added that his government was eager to get the inputs of industry stakeholders into the state’s draft electricity regulatory framework to make the state’s electricity market viable.

Mbah, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said the campaign promise to resuscitate pipe-borne water, improve security, education, healthcare delivery services and others, would not be possible without a drastic improvement in electricity capacity.

“Therefore, we are opening up the entire value chain of the electricity market in the state for all market participants to play, from supply to generation, transmission to distribution.

“Electricity retailing through off-grid to mini-grid solutions and from metering to energy efficiency applications,” he said.

The governor assured the industry players of the continued independence of EERC to operate without political or administrative interference.

In a speech, the Chairman of EERC, Chijioke Okonkwo, expressed worry over the present power deficit in the state.

Okonkwo said that the commission needed to carry everyone along from the outset, in order to build investor confidence required to turn things around.

“We have given ourselves some projected targets that within the next two years, Enugu State should be consuming at least 300 megawatts and by 2030 we would have hit at least 700 megawatts.

“Right now, we are getting approximately 70 megawatts from the national grid.

“And this is not sufficient for us to say that we want to put ourselves in the position to industrialise. We want to change that narrative.

“The industry players and operators want a place where they can carry out commercially viable businesses.

“They are here to make money, but they are also expected to provide services that are reliable and sustainable,” Okonkwo said.

He further said that the engagement would give stakeholders an opportunity to make inputs and enable them to agree on what the regulations should be to support investment initiatives before finalisation, adoption, and implementation of the regulatory framework

In a remark, the Managing Director of Siemens Energy Nigeria, Seun Suleiman, lauded the transparency of the State Government through its regulatory agency.

“I see a lot of transparency here today.

“Each commissioner is breaking down all the discussions in terms of the regulation and how you will get the permit.

“We are very happy because we also want to support a lot of these captive power investors with our ranges of gas turbines, which we have done in so many places,” Suleiman said.

Also, the Acting Managing Director of the Infrastructure Bank, Nkiru Chime, said, “Enugu State is being very proactive in setting out how the electricity market will play.

“But funding is needed to drive the investment, and that is why we are here to provide an avenue to enable all the participants and market developers to attract the right kind of funding to develop the market”. (NAN)