Nigeria's energy problems can be solved via strategic planning -NCPRD

Nigeria's energy problems can be solved via strategic planning -NCPRD

 The Director of National Centre for Petroleum Research and Development (NCPRD), Dr Mohammed Abubakar, says Nigeria’s lingering energy crisis could be resolved through Strategic Energy Planning (SEP).

Abubakar said this at the beginning of a five-day zonal training workshop on ‘Energy Demand and Supply Projection in Nigeria’ in Bauchi, northern Nigeria.

“SEP will bring about the needed solution to the lingering energy problem and the foundation to SEP is the requisite knowledge and skills to plan.
Therefore, the use of analytical tools at federal, state and local government levels and even isolated buildings and establishments, will provide better plans on energy for our collective benefit”,  he said.

 Energy crisis

Abubakar noted that the country’s energy crisis seemed to have defied all solutions, in spite of the huge amount spent on the energy sector by the Nigerian government.

To him, “The worst scenario is that the nation does not seem to know, even at present, its energy demands, not to talk of what it needs in a year, 10 years, or even 50 years to come, in the various sectors of the economy. Yet, this is very important for current and future development planning”.

Energy demand and supply: key components

However, he expressed the hope that the workshop would adequately address topical issues concerning the country’s energy demand and supply requirements, both at state and local government levels.

In his Paper, entitled ‘Challenges of Energy Planning for Ensuring Enhanced National Energy Supply’, the Director- General, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Prof. Abubakar Sambo, stressed that energy demand and supply projections were key components of energy planning at all levels.

Sambo, who was represented by Dr Johnson Ojo, the Director, Energy Planning and Analysis, said that the availability, accessibility and affordability of energy determined a country's level of development.

He noted that energy demand in the country currently out-stripped its supply, adding that the development had negatively affected social and economic growth.

Integrating energy planning

Sambo, therefore, recommended the adoption of an integrated energy planning in Nigeria to achieve energy supply security.

“Drivers of energy demand are demography, economy, energy intensities and energy efficiencies, and Nigeria has vast energy resources, which comprise both the conventional and renewable categories’’, he said.

He noted that a team of experts had already computed energy demand and supply projections for the country from 2005 to 2030.

Improving energy sector

In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor ATBU, Prof. Mohammed Hamisu, said that energy issues played vital roles in the comfort and well-being of the citizens, adding that efforts to improve the energy sector should be accorded topmost priority.

NAN/Chiamaka/Ekata