Nigeria loses 1,297 megawatts in 18 days over shortage of gas

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has revealed that the nation’s power generation capacity dropped from 3,959 megawatts on January 4 to 2,662 megawatts on January 22, leading to a loss of 1,297 megawatts within 18 days.

The Nigerian Electricity System Operator (SO) website, a sub agency of TCN, disclosed the figure in its daily forecast on power generation data in Lagos, on Sunday.

TCN attributed the drop to low water levels at the hydro power stations and dearth of gas to the power generating companies.

It said the total output of 2,662.20 megawatts from all the generation companies on Sunday had been transferred to the 11 distribution companies across the country.

According to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) operational report for January 4, the power sector hit a peak generation of 4,959 megawatts but dropped to 2,662.20 megawatts on January 22.

NESI said the sector recorded highest system frequency of 51.32Hz and lowest system frequency of 48.52 Hz, while the highest and the lowest voltage recorded on Sunday were 372KV and 300KV, respectively.

An official of TCN, who preferred anonymity, told NAN that electricity generation had been dwindling due to challenge of accessing gas by generation companies.

The official said that low level water levels at the country’s hydro thermal stations also contributed to the drop in generation.

He said that most hydro stations are currently confronted with low water challenges to generate energy.

The TCN official said that this often caused system collapse when the system scrabbled to distribute energy from the grid to distribution companies and the quantum of energy was not sufficient.

He said it is a challenging period for power sector but it will get better once the hydro swing into high water level and gas becomes available.

The official attributed the drop in generation to the attack launched against pipeline facilities belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) on January 17 around Ugheli in Delta state.

Similarly, a top official of Egbin Power Station, who also pleaded anonymity, said that the power plant, with a capacity of 1,320 megawatts, now generates 340 megawatts due to gas constraint.

The official said that the 340 megawatts Egbin generated was wheeled out to the national grid at 6.00 am on Sunday.

Speaking at Nextier Power Dialogue in Abuja on Friday, Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, said the sabotage of power assets by militants prevented Nigeria from generating 7,000 MW of electricity.

“Today, at its most frugal, the nation’s power grid would support 6,500MW; pushed to its limit, it would carry 7,200MW,” he had said.

“So it is not true when you hear that the grid capacity is not more than 5,000MW. It is growing every day and more projects are coming up.

“We have completed some and more are still coming up. So that is where we are.”

He said while power was out due to attacks in one axis, the expansion of either the grid or gas supply was kept alive on another axis and hydro power was also being expanded.