ENDING DISRUPTION IN POWER SECTOR By Hon. Mohammed Wakil, Minister of state power Federal Republic of Nigeria NOA to The Rescue... In order to ensure proper sensitisation of communities hosting power infrastructure on the need to support government in adequately protecting them, Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil has tasked the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mike Omeri to support the ministry in efforts to address the issue of vandalism of power infrastructure. Wakil made the call when he received the visiting NOA delegation, where he pointed out that no agency is better endowed than the NOA to help tackle the challenge of vandalism particularly with regards to sensitisation of host communities. According to him, the twin issue of lack of gas and vandalism has impacted negatively on government’s quest to realise its dream for un-interrupted power supply to Nigerians in the shortest possible time. He said the ministry, which has been working tirelessly with the Civil Defence Corps, will now bring in NOA in the tripartite arrangement to ensure that government emerges victorious in efforts to end vandalisation of power assets and deliver reliable electricity to Nigerians. The minister disclosed that in order to underscore the seriousness of vandalism, the ministry has carried out a pilot model in a community in Kogi State, where Operation Safe Power Infrastructure was successfully launched. Omeri in his remarks assured that his agency was willing to consummate partnership that will help in the fight against vandalism of power infrastructure. According to him, the NOA has an effective network that spread across 774 local government areas in the Nigeria through which communities could be sensitised. He insisted that anti-vandalism campaign must be taken to the communities, pointing out that the best form of protection of public infrastructure is not through enforcement agents but the through the host communities themselves. Analyst Proffers Solution... Despite efforts being adopted by government to check the challenge, industry analyst, Dan D. Kunle, has said government needs to deploy digital surveillance to protect the strategic assets as physical surveillance cannot be very effective. He said, “Most of the strategic assets like the generation plants and transmission lines and all the big and small substations should be equipped with special cameras that can relay censors to the control room to indicate that there is an unwanted or unauthorised interference somewhere.” He pointed out that the transmission lines are so many adding that leaving them under the surveillance of the police or civil defence officers may not be too effective as compared to digitalising their security. Speaking further, the analyst urged the various Distribution Companies (Discos) to ensure the provision of digital surveillance for their assets which fall within their operating units. He stressed that without security for the assets the Discos would hardly be able to provide electricity to their customers, collect tariff or make revenue. Kunle who has a vast knowledge of the power industry further added that censor cameras should also be installed on electric poles so as to trigger an alarm whenever the poles are being tampered with. He said each electric pole should have a “unique beacon number so that when the alarm reaches the control room it can easily indicate which pole with what beacon number that is being tampered with. “Following such alarm security can quickly be deployed to the point and foil further attempts to completely vandalise the asset,” he explained. It is expected that the various partnerships would culminate to an effective protection of the assets and prevent a replication of the situation presently faced in the oil sector where the nation losses billions of naira annually to stolen crude and products and for the repairs of the vandalised assets. Furthermore, other than relying on the use of security personnel in and around the critical assets to ensure their security, other options such as the planned sensitisation of host communities and equipping the infrastructure with digital surveillance should also be aggressively pursued.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:34:36 +0000