Lagos State says it will raise its available electricity from below 1,000 megawatts to above 3,000 megawatts by March 2027. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu made the announcement through his deputy, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, at the Lagos Business School Africa Energy Conference on Sunday.
The state plans to find the extra 2,000 megawatts from the national grid, independent power projects, energy hubs, power barges, energy traders and embedded generation. The plan has seven points, from making the Lagos Electricity Market fully functional to more metering, stronger transmission, better gas-to-power arrangements and new IT systems. The state also said about 42,000 of its roughly 50,000 streetlights have been switched to solar, and 175 public schools have solar, with 100 more in progress.
This is not the first number we have heard this year. In May, the state’s energy commissioner, Biodun Ogunleye, said Lagos was targeting an extra 2,000 megawatts through private investors and market operators, with no deadline. In August, at a town hall at Lagos House, the Federal Ministry of Power said it was targeting 3,500 megawatts for Lagos and proposed a review meeting in five to six months. ThisDay reported at the time that Lagos receives less than 1 gigawatt from the national grid and needs more than 6,000 megawatts.
The October announcement is the first to give a date, and five months is not too long for a plan this size. Governor Sanwo-Olu himself has called for “disciplined implementation and measurable results.”
