Renewable energy: NCC reveals plan for fresh policies

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is billed to mark the 2023 World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) in Abuja.

The event will commemorate its regulatory initiatives on clean energy usage in the telecoms sector.

The theme of the 2023 edition of the Day is “Empowering Consumers through Clean Energy Transitions.”

In a statement made available to Legit.ng on Thursday, March 9, the NCC executive commissioner for stakeholder management, Adeleke Adewolu, revealed that the theme provides opportunities for the commission to share its policies with stakeholders in a bid to help them transition to environmentally friendly and renewable energy sources in their operations.

Adewolu, who represented the executive vice chairman and chief executive officer, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, at the committee’s inauguration to the event’s organisation, said the commission is committed to reducing the impact that telecommunications operation has on climate change and the environment.

He noted that the peculiarities of Nigeria’s electricity supply have resulted in the telecommunications sector contributing to carbon emissions.

Danbatta, a Fellow of the Renewable Alternative Energy Society (FRAES), stated that studies have shown that renewables and energy efficiency, boosted by substantial electrification, can provide over 90 per cent of the necessary reductions in energy-related carbon emissions.

He said increasing the use of renewable electricity presents the best opportunity to accelerate the world’s energy transformation.

He said:

“The theme is very apt this year, as we know the implication of the climate change disaster facing the world. So, as a Commission, we are committed to reducing the impact of climate change.

“The telecoms sector contributes to global emissions, particularly when you realize that there are over 54,000 base transmitter stations powered, in some cases 24 hours seven days a week, by generators. You can just imagine the emissions from these.”

He explained that the commission was already looking at introducing a policy to encourage ethical energy sources as part of the commission’s commitment to safeguarding the environment for consumers and other users of telecom services, a move that is also in tandem with the process of actualising some of the necessary items of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The EVC further stated that, in recent years, the commission had introduced a regulatory framework on infrastructure sharing and collocation among the licensees, which, he said, has encouraged operators to maximise their already-deployed infrastructure fully.

Source: Legit.ng