The management of the University of Jos has embarked on desperate search for alternative energy supply away from the national grid to power the entire university.
The management has therefore opened up discussions with private and public energy companies for partnership in this regard.
Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Tanko Ishaya, disclosed this during his interactive session with the media after presenting his third- year stewardship.
The VC noted that it has realised that it is difficult for the university to cope with the humongous energy bills sourcing power from the national grid.
He said, “The hike in energy tariffs has multiplied cost of consumption; with the current Band we are placed at the University, we are now paying four times what we used to pay, and that makes it extremely difficult for the university to cope.
“It is on that note that we have started looking for alternative to the national grid for our energy supply. We are planning to invest in solar energy. A number of solar options are on our table to power the entire university. We are already discussing with five companies and we are looking at the various models of solar energies they are recommending to us.
“We are much more interested in a partnership on a PPP arrangement. We are also engaging government agencies to upgrade our solar farm through the opportunity provided by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA)
“The university is also engaging some national Assembly members to explore the opportunity of their constituency projects by way of taking power project in one faculty or department.
“Meanwhile, what we are currently doing is to minimise the humongous energy bill from the national grid by rationing our light. We are trying to get the Student Union Government (SUG) to understand the situation and accept rationing of energy supply. It is just impossible to provide light 24 hours by current energy tariff.
The VC, however, decried the power situation, where despite the monthly bill that has quadrupled since the current banding regime by DISCOs, the university gets only five hours of electricity supply daily.
