The nation’s power generation plunged to zero megawatt six
times last month, the highest level since 2009, industry data obtained by our
correspondent on Friday showed.
Electricity supply to households and businesses across the
country dropped significantly in May as the national grid recorded six total
collapses and one partial collapse within the period.
The national grid completely collapsed 11 times in the first
five months of the year, as compared to six and nine times for the whole of
2015 and 2014, respectively.
As of 6am on Friday, eleven power plants, including the
Shiroro Power Station in Niger State, were not generating any megawatts of
electricity.
Others were Afam IV & V, Geregu I, Omotosho I, AES,
ASCO, Trans-Amadi, Rivers IPP, Gbarain, Olorunsogo I and II.
The total national power generation stood at 2,604.5MW as of
6am on Friday, down from a peak of 5,074.7MW on February 2, according to the
Ministry of Power.
The slide in power generation has worsened the blackout
being experienced in many parts of the country, with several consumers without
electricity for hours in recent weeks.
Generation from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station,
stood at 181MW, down from 1,085MW on March 15.
Shiroro Power Station in Niger State, Olorunsogo II in Ogun
State, and Rivers and Trans-Amadi IPPs, both in Rivers State, were idle.
Increasing gas constraints largely occasioned by recent
attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta had left about 4,400MW of the nation’s
power generation capacity idle as of Friday.
Other factors limiting electricity generation are line
constraints/load rejection by the distribution companies and water
management/maintenance, according to industry data.
Gas constraints prevented 3,661.1MW from being generated,
while 355.6MW and 380MW could not be generated due to line constraints/load
rejection by Discos and water management/maintenance, respectively.
The nation generates most of its electricity from gas-fired
power plants, while output from hydro-power plants makes up about 30 per cent of
total generation.
As of April 5, the unutilised generation capacity was
3,626.1MW, with 3,100.5MW due to gas constraints; 245.6MW caused by line
constraints/rejection by Discos and 280MW as a result of water
management/maintenance.
The Chairman, Network of Electricity Consumers Advocacy of
Nigeria, Mr. Tomi Akingbogun, complained that many consumers were being giving
over-estimated bills despite the worsening state of power supply.
“We hear that most of the problems arise from the
transmission lines because many of them are weak,” he said, adding that the
distribution companies had failed to provide prepaid meters to the consumers to
ensure that they billed the people only for what they consumed.
Akinbogun said, “They (power firms) are not concerned about
the total system collapse because they are making money whether they supply
electricity or not. So, why will they be interested in making sure that we have
electricity?”
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde
Fashola, at a recent public lecture, said, “In our road map to incremental
power, we are looking at what we have and what we can get out of them.
“We have 26 power plants (including the AES plant), three of
the plants are powered by water, the hydro power plants in Jebba, Kainji and
Shiroro. The remainders are powered by gas.”
He put the total number of turbines, which should actually
generate power from 25 power plants (excluding AES), at 140 turbines with installed
capacity of 12,341MW.
“At the best of times, only about 78 turbines are generating
power, which gave us our peak of 5,074 MW.
“The problems have been identified as either damaged,
unmaintained or unserviced turbines in the hydro power plants; and in the cases
of gas plants, it is largely non-availability of gas, coupled with lack of
maintenance,” Fashola said.
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