THE Commissioner, Lagos State Ministry Of Energy and Mineral Resources, Olalere Odusote, has said that everyone in Lagos would have electricity in 2036.
Odusote, who disclosed this today as a guest on a Lagos Television (LTV) programme, ‘Morning Delight’, assured residents that the plan would come to fruition.
He said, “By the year 2036, we are going to have universal access to electricity for everyone in Lagos. A universal access just means everybody who wants electricity will have electricity when they want, in the quantity they want it, and in the quality they want it.
“That means Lagos will have electricity for everyone by 2036. It may seem like a long time, but we have to be realistic. We have done an integrated resource plan that has estimated what the demand forecast is for electricity, and has identified the infrastructure deficit and the timeline for developing that infrastructure.”
The commissioner added that the state was also seeking to achieve one gigawatt of electricity generation that would come from renewables in 2030. He stated that it was important for Lagos to achieve renewable energy due to the emissions from diesel that have plagued the state, spreading respiratory illnesses.
“Lagos is a crowded city, the more diesel emissions we have in Lagos, the more respiratory illnesses we have. That is a burden that the state government has to shoulder. The more we reduce that, the better it is for Lagosians,” he explained.
Odusote, noting that Lagos was the highest importer in the world and the largest destination per capita for diesel generators, said the state government was seeking a way to get cleaner energy for the residents. He said that while Lagos gets less than a thousand megawatts (mw) from the national grid, it has a need for 8,000mw. This, he stressed, is what the government is making efforts to mitigate.
He said, “The off-grid sector has brought over 8,000mw of diesel generators. That is a lot of emissions in the air and it is what we are trying to mitigate. The market exists and we want to serve that market in a cleaner manner.”
The commissioner said the state government was not doing things outside of the constitution in the era of power generation, but had only come up with a policy consultation process that took into consideration all stakeholders in the power sector before drafting the state’s policy.
He said that the state’s electricity policy had been widely accepted by stakeholders, and expressed how the plan would help the state achieve self-sufficiency in the future.
The plan, according to him, included generating power from solar sunroofs, which may boost the state’s grid by 12 gigawatt.
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I can agree vividly with your projection on the need to discourage fossil fuel in power generation for obvious reasons but, your target year is an issue for me Mr commissioner with due respect. As an engineer, I have gone round Lagos and have discovered how to generate power without having to pollute the air. With this discovery sir, I believe you can achieve surplus and I mean it surplus power for all in Lagos earlier than 2036 even without 1 mega watt from the national grid. You have my contact if you want to give me a try, thanks.