The Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory, Commission, NERC, Professor James Momoh, on Monday, revealed that the agency has commenced process that would trigger the construction of smart mini-grid system in the urban and rural communities across the country.
Momoh, who disclosed this while speaking with newsmen on the prospect of the 11th International Conference on Energy, Power Systems Operation and Planning, ICEPSOP, Abuja 2020 holding today, at the Transcorp Hilton declared that centralised national grid system was no longer sustainable for a growing economy like Nigeria.
According to Momoh, the conference, themed “Empowering Micro-Grid with Smart Attributes Development in the United States and Africa,” would be attended by professionals, policy makers, regulators scholars, students from across Nigeria, African and Americans, who are interested in solving Nigeria’s electricity problem as it aims at developing alternative grid system needed to drive Nigeria’s development.
He noted that the conference would put heads together to see how the mini-grid works, of what benefit it will be for Nigeria given the current centralised national grid system and also how it will provide required environment to explore innovative regulatory approaches in promoting efficient and competitive service delivery involving deployment of smart and micro -grid technologies.
Meanwhile the chairman, House Committee on Power, Hon. Magaji Aliyu said that as Nigeria battles to generate, transmit and distribute electric power, the country has serious challenges reaching most of the rural areas.
He insisted that the issue of mini-grid development has become crucial in addressing the issue of power supply to remote areas of the country.