Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has signed the State Electric Power Reform bill into law. The law is specifically designed to generate at least 4, 000 megawatts of electricity under an embedded power initiative.
After signing the bills into laws earlier in the month, Ambode noted that each of the legislation “is expected to contribute to the growth and development of the state. Electricity reform law gives legal backing to the embedded power initiative. It is designed to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity in 2018 and 3,000 megawatts by 2022.”
The governor also signed six other bills into laws namely: the Amended Land Use Charge Bill, School of Nursing Bill, Cooperative College Bill, Cancer Research Institute bill, Amended Customary Court Bill, and the Yoruba Language Preservation and Promotion Bill.
He hinted that the power reform law “criminalizes power infractions and creates penalties for offenders in the state. “This law strengthens our resolve to commence the journey to provide uninterrupted power supply to businesses and homes in Lagos State.”
Giving insight into the embedded power initiative after the bills were assented to, Oluwo said the law would allow the state government to intervene in major areas of the power value chain to the overall benefit of the people.
He, thus, spoke on the benefits of the embedded power initiative, noting that the law would help the government extend its guarantee “to private sector participants who will come and generate power for us. By this guarantee, we are putting the balance sheet of our state on the table and assuring investors that as they generate power, they will get paid.”
He, also, noted that the law would help the distribution companies “to upgrade their infrastructure because if they generate the power and their infrastructure is still where it is today, clearly they will not have the capacity to carry the incremental power.”
He added that the third area of intervention “is that it empowers us to be able to open up the gas market in Lagos so that we can have gas on a consistent basis and that is how we can attain the 24-hour power supply.”
The law would also enable the state government “to collaborate with the distribution companies to collect tariff from customers efficiently in a way that the said guarantee would not crystallise, while in the area of enforcement, the law will prevent power theft.
