Power Generation Hits One-month Daily Peak of 4,553.9MW

 

Ejiofor Alike

After several weeks of low power supply in the country, power generation finally hit a daily peak of 4,553.90 megawatts, the highest since March 23 when the daily peak generation was put at 4,452 megawatts, according to yesterday’s operational report by the Nigerian Electricity System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

According to the report, a daily peak generation of 4,553.90MW was recorded on Tuesday, while the lowest generation was 3,573.4MW, representing a significant improvement since low water levels at the Hydro power stations and liquidity challenges forced down generation in the past weeks.

The operational report also showed that 3,775.20MW was wheeled into the national grid at exactly 06:00 hours yesterday, also an improvement to average supply in recent weeks, which hovered around 3,400MW.

THISDAY’s investigation had revealed that after the March 23 peak generation of 4,452MW, the daily peak and lowest generation continued to drop with the transmission system recording near system collapse on April 9, 10 and 11 when the lowest daily generation dropped to 108.70MW, 240MW and 1,554.70MW, respectively.

During these three days, the daily peak generation was 3,831.80MW, 3,669.90MW and 3,624.90MW, respectively, against the new peak of 4,553.90MW recorded on Tuesday.

Before the power supply worsened on April 9,10 and 11, the daily operational report showed that peak generation was 4,199.50 megawatts on March 30 and 4,244.70 on March 31.

However, on April 1, the situation worsened as peak generation was 3,995.60 while 3,491.40 was the lowest generation, according to the operational report.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola had told Arise Television, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, that the power outages were due to low water levels at the nation’s hydro power stations.

The minister had also reassured Nigerians that power generation would ramp up to 4,000 megawatts, promising that: “By the time you have the hydro station back during the raining season, you will get more.”

 “For the first time in a long time, this is the peak of very hot weather where the waters in the hydro plants are down,” he said.

The inability of the generation companies to pay for gas as a result of the liquidity challenges, also contributed to the poor power situation.

The Gencos had blamed their inability to pay for gas on poor remittances by the Discos for power supplied to them to distribute to their customers.

To address the liquidity challenges, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) at last month’s meeting of the power sector operators in Osogbo, Osun State, announced that it would escrow and centralise the power sector’s revenue to allow for transparency and probity.

But the Discos opposed the move, describing it as an attempt by the regulatory agency to nationalise their operations.

In response, the 26 Gencos had accused the 11 Discos of creating suspicions among sector operators on their operational integrity.

The Gencos under the aegis of the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) said the Discos’ opposition to NERC’s central revenue management initiative was a strong indication that the they might be hiding their true financial position from the members of the value chain.