By Idowu Oyebanjo
The Opportunities
Localisation Of Services
In the last few years,
there has been increased agitation for localisation of services in the power
sector especially in the local manufacture of smart meters. Local manufacturers
of meters now have an opportunity to showcase their capability under the local
content initiative. This will lead to the creation of jobs and business
opportunities as marketers of electricity recharge cards or vouchers just as
experienced in the Telecommunication sector will spring up along with companies
involved in metering and customer billing systems.
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| *Idowu Oyebanjo |
A critical element that will
hold NESI in good steer is the need for a global procurement strategy or
culture where stakeholders leverage on the volume of purchase to reduce cost.
In the atmosphere of cuts, this will serve the industry well. This can start now.
As Discos seek to purchase meters in bulk, they should negotiate a fair deal in
view of the number of meters they will have to purchase. Consultants and
service providers will not be left out as installation, operation, and required
maintenance services for meters procured will be sourced. Generally speaking,
there is need to establish the Joint Qualification System (JQS) and register of
suitably pre-qualified practitioners to provide these services by the Nigerian
Content Joint Consultative forum.
Other potential
opportunities include but not limited to the provision of Demand Side Response
and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), pursuit of revenue protection
initiatives by Discos, energy efficiency and energy conservation (as those who
waste electricity will now conserve it and therefore contribute to increased
availability of power elsewhere on the network), increased network operational
efficiency, phased introduction of feed-in-tariffs (as consumers deploy
renewable generation on their roofs), increased penetration of embedded
generation with the attendant reduction in network losses and accelerated
increase in availability of electricity supply.
