Experts advocate embedded power plants to boost electricity generation From Matthew Ogune, Abuja

IN line with the Federal Government’s effort to diversify sources of power, energy experts have stressed the need for investment in embedded power generation.

Embedded generation is the term used to describe the process of generating electricity at a specific location and then connecting that supply into the electricity network.

The immediate past Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Prof. Abubakar Sambo, who spoke at the weekend in Abuja during the yearly general meeting of the Council for Renewable Energy Nigeria (CREN), stated that studies have shown that the power demand of the country as of now is between 30,000 to 40,000 megawatts.

He said that the only way this could be made available was to result in the embedded power plants, mini-grids and off grids.

Sambo said the system would provide a window for investors, communities, states and local councils to generate and sell or utilise power without going through the transmission grid.

According to him, the need to rely on embedded power plants, mini-grids and off-grid solutions became more imperative because the current grid the nation is relying on could not take more than 7,000 megawatts.

Also speaking, President of West African Federation of Engineering Organisation, Otis Oliver Anyaeji, who said that the conventional energy derived from hydrocarbons, petroleum, coals, among others, had been implicated in a big problems of climate change, stressed the need to move away from the conventional energy sources to the renewable energy ones.

On her part, President of CREN, Anita Nana Okuribido, said that it was wrong for foreign contractors to come and take up a job that is meant for Nigerian engineers.

She, therefore, charged young engineers on the need to step up and occupy the market.

“In CREN, we do not believe that foreign contractors should come and take up our job; we are capable of deploying solutions through renewable energy technology and we really have to step up and occupy the market,” she stated.