By Patience Chat Moses
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has commenced strong engagement with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) as it seeks increasing the licensing threshold for mini-grids from 1MW to 5MW.
The Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of REA, Engr. Ahmad Salihijo, said that Nigeria’s energy transition fuels the Agency’s review and update of regulations for mini-grids.
Salihijo revealed this in his keynote address at the just concluded Nigeria Energy Leadership Summit , said the Agency is ready to receive investors as it has “demonstrated the ability to scale off-grid energy programmes and projects by leveraging on public and development funding to catalyse massive investment flows that deliver value for all stakeholders.”
“The market is available, the sector has been derisked and we have demonstrated the will and capacity to support the energy transition, thus we welcome investments in off-grid energy projects to achieve the same,” Ahmad said.
He pointed to the off-grid energy systems as a major project that REA finances to “improve the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians, especially those in unserved and underserved rural locations.”
The REA CEO defined off-grid systems as small standalone energy systems that can power single buildings using standalone solar home systems.
He said that off-grid systems are powered by solar, wind, biomass or other renewable energy sources and can power entire clusters or communities without any connection to the main grid.
Salihijo further said the Agency has occasioned the sales of over 1.4 million units of solar home systems, and deployed over 500 mini-grids in rural communities and primary healthcare centres in Nigeria.
“In addition, REA has achieved electrification or in-the-process electrification of 24 federal universities with captive solar power plants and has deployed Productive Use of Energy (PUE) equipment in agricultural clusters.
“These have translated into over 1 million off-grid electricity connections that have directly impacted and provided energy access for over 9 million Nigerians,” he said.
Ahmad attributed the impact of REA to the Nigeria Electrification Project which is funded by The World Bank and Africa Development Bank.
He revealed that REA was also administering and implementing other projects under the Rural Electrification Fund, including the REA Capital Projects, the Energizing Education Programme, the Energizing Economies Initiative; which is led by the the private sector, the $300 million Solar Power Naija debt lending facility and the 9.3 million euros Interconnected Mini-grid Acceleration Scheme.
Salihijo attributed the Agency’s impact to its leadership and its leading development partners who work closely with them to provide technical assistance and strengthen local institutional capacities.
He added that the Agency’s partners in the projects include Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), among others.