Story from Kenneth AFOR, Lagos
The Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Electricity Board (LSEB), has announced that it will provide solar electricity to 172 public secondary schools and 11 Public Health Centres.
This was announced by the Director-General of LSEB, Mr Mukhtaar Tijani, during a press briefing on Tuesday in Ikeja.
According to Tijani, due to the growing population and ever-increasing level of civilisation in the state has witnessed an increase in the demand of energy hence, it calls for concerns over the limited energy resources.
However, the Sanwo-Olu-led administration is focused on providing sustainable energy supply through optimised use of energy to curtail pollution.
He stressed that the government is committed to transforming the state’s electricity ecosystem to make it the jewel of the nation in clean electricity generation and Africa as a whole.
”The approach to achieving the 2030 target on Sustainable Development Goal 7 which emphasises affordable and clean energy in the state has been captured in the developmental agenda of the present administration.
”The making of Lagos a 21st Century Economy entails enhancing and facilitating access to clean energy technology including renewable energy, as well as advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel energy for the state.
”Part of the effort to improve the energy mix is the Lagos Solar Project which is an initiative that is focused on implementing stand-alone solar power solutions for public facilities.
”This project is currently providing solar power to 172 public secondary schools and 11 public health centres (PHCS),” he said.
Tijani in his briefing added that the state would deliver additional solar systems to rural, riverine and public secondary schools located within the rural areas.
Lagos State according to the director-general managed over 1,300 kilometres of public lighting across the state adding that in a quest to ensure that the streets continued to bask in improved public lighting at night, the board has beefed up maintenance and surveillance of major access/link roads that serve communities.
He assured Lagosians of prompt response to complaints on street lights malfunction in different parts of the state, a measure in rejuvenating public lighting services in the state.
”In addition to this, the state will in no distant time embark on the retrofitting of street lights from High-Pressure Sodium Bulb (HPS) to Light Emitting Diode (LED).
”This initiative is an energy efficiency scheme that will advance the street lightening project of the state.
”While a sustainable energy future requires structural reform and the facilitation of technology transfer, the four pillars of development, economic, political, social and the environment must be considered during policy formulation.
”This is because sustainable energy resources must be economically viable, politically supported, socially equitable and environmentally acceptable,” he said.
Also, he hinted that the state is taking steps towards developing a robust master plan that would create investment opportunities in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology.
The master plan according to him would be assessing the actual energy consumption and energy needs of the state which will cut across all sectors of the economy.
”The first phase of this exercise has been completed at state-owned healthcare facilities, educational institutions, waste management facilities, parks, waterworks, sports, theatres and cinemas across the five divisions of Lagos.
”We would not be limiting the audit to government and public facilities as the strategy is to incorporate the private sector to harmonise all energy sources in the state and have an inclusive management plan that will cater for future expansion,” he said.
