Again, Nationwide Power Generation Drops by 1,585.7MW

Chineme Okafor in Abuja
Total power generated by Nigeria’s power stations for transmission and distribution to homes has again dropped by 1,585.7 megawatts (MW) from 3,701.7MW that was achieved as peak generation on Monday evening, THISDAY has learnt.

The paper gathered from the daily generation report of the Nigerian System Operator which was published on Tuesday that as at 6am on Tuesday, the country only had 2,116.0MW to transmit to the 11 distribution companies (Discos) for onward distribution to homes and offices.

The report also showed that there was a time on Monday that just about 301.3MW was generated into the system. This, a Disco source said, was because of a partial system collapse which was recorded in the evening of Monday.

The source also stated that generation gradually began to come up early Tuesday morning. It was also learnt that the Abuja Disco for instance had only 135MW to distribute in the morning, some increase from about 50MW that was given to it on Monday.

The source’s claims were buttressed by that of another source in the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) who told THISDAY that the generation companies on Monday reported that they were short of gas to power their plants.

THISDAY could not reach the Managing Director of the System Operation Department of TCN, Mr. Dipak Sarma to confirm the situation. His mobile numbers were switched off and no response to the text message that was sent to him was received either.

The TCN which reported a partial system collapse on Saturday due to poor gas supplies, had earlier stated that once power generation goes below 3500MW, the possibility of a system collapse would be inevitable owing to the fact that Nigeria currently has no spinning reserve again to jump-start the system.

This development is even happening at a time the government is having issues with electricity workers union, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on the oustanding settlement of disengagement benefits owed to former workers of defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as a well as government’s recent takeover of PHCN corporate headquarters building in Abuja which the union has frowned upon.

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