Blackouts in the state would stop thanks to Lagos State Electricity Bill 2024, which is currently before the state House of Assembly. The guarantee was given on Wednesday at a one-day public hearing on the bill at the assembly complex by the state’s commissioner of energy and mineral resources, Mr. Biodun Ogunlewe.
The Lagos electricity market’s establishment and management, as well as other related issues, are covered by the Bill for a Law to Repeal the Lagos State Power Sector Reform Law 2018, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari, on March 17, 2023, signed into law, a constitutional amendment that permitted states in the country to create, transfer and distribute power in areas covered by the national grid. On Saturday, the national grid crashed for the fourth time in 2024, causing a blackout across the country.
If the measure is signed into law, according to Ogunlewe, the state government will be able to produce, transmit, and distribute electricity straight to consumers. After the bill was signed into law, the commissioner promised that all state residents would have access to high-quality power in two years.
“We believe that the passage is the beginning of the revolution that Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has promised the people of the state.
“We are going to witness where the state grid will operate in such a way that we are not encountering the challenges that come from a largely single source.
“The first thing the people of Lagos should expect from this bill is provisions in respect of other operators coming into the market and in respect of environmental friendliness.
“At present, there are issues not allowing the operators to do their businesses but they have been resolved in this bill.
“I believe this bill will make the state the global centre of excellence where everybody is carried along,” he stated.
Ogunlewe stated that the state government had guaranteed that all its class A roads were lighted while most of the class B roads were also lighted. He noted that over 20,000 street lighting poles were working at present.
According to the commissioner, the government would intervene through off-grid and macro-grid platforms with regard to the state’s rural districts.
“Talking about the alternative source of energy, at the centre of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu strategy, is an immediate sign-off of nothing less than 1,000 megawatts of non-renewable energy capacity coming in the market.
“We are going to see a power sector that has a better energy meet.
“It is not going to be fossil fuel alone, we are going to see a great departure from what we have in the past where there would just be an actual collapse,” he said.
The commissioner stated that the state anticipated deliberations and recommendations from interested parties during the bill’s third reading.
