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NERC: Poor Performance of 17 Power Plants Threatens Energy Stability
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Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that the poor performance of 17 out of the 26 power stations in the country is a threat to the nation’s energy stability, adding that only nine power plants account for 73 per cent of electricity generated in the country.
The industry regulator, in its report for the 4th quarter of 2020, the latest in the series, said that the situation was of grave concern to the sector as the convergence of generation in a few plants could destabilise supply when they encounter challenges.
THISDAY recalls that the problem manifested in April this year when the nation suffered an extensive power outage as the few functional plants faced operational problems.
Some of the plants that experienced breakdowns at the time included Sapele, Afam, Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Ibom, Egbin, Alaoji, and Ihovbor while the Jebba power plant was shut down for annual maintenance.
In addition, the government stated that Geregu, Omotosho, Gbarain, Omuku, Paras, and Alaoji experienced gas constraints while the Shiroro hydroelectric power plant had water management issues.
While malfunctions are a common feature in the sector, resulting in incessant blackouts, on average, Nigeria generates roughly 4,000 megawatts for a population of over 200 million.
In the most recent report, NERC noted that due to its size and availability, the Egbin power plant accounted for the highest share of generation, with about 13.85 per cent of the total energy output followed by the Kainji power plant which accounted for 8.34 per cent energy share.
During the same period, NERC noted that Olorunsogo National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) plant accounted for the least share of output, contributing 0.12 per cent.
“In comparison to the preceding quarter, it shows clearly that energy generation in Nigeria is still heavily dependent on nine power plants as these plants accounted for 73 per cent of the total electric energy output in 2020/Q4.
“The implication is that the (over)reliance of the grid on the energy supplied by nine power plants may pose a risk to the industry.
“This is because downtime in any of them may result in grid instability if there is no adequate reserved capacity from other plants to timely offset adverse impact of any sudden loss of generation from any of the nine plants,” NERC stated.
To ameliorate the challenge, the industry regulator noted that it had commenced the process of gradually activating industry contracts to provide certainty to the minimum volume of energy expected of each generating plant and properly allocate risks among the industry operators.
“This is expected to lead to incremental growth in power availability and utilisation,” it said.
During the quarter, NERC said that the industry recorded the quarter’s daily generation peak of 5,520MW on December 4, 2020.
“The decrease in available generation capacity is attributable to the increase in the number of generation units undergoing operational maintenance, which made them unavailable for operation during the quarter.
“On average, 71 plant generation units were available during the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to 72 generation units available during the third quarter of 2020,” it said.
But NERC explained that in Q4, due to improvements in capacity utilisation, the total electric energy generated increased by 16.49 per cent while 71.17 per cent of the available capacity was utilised, indicating a 9.46 percentage points increase from the capacity utilisation rate recorded in the third quarter.
“The improved capacity utilisation rate recorded during the quarter under review was due to the reduction in technical and operational constraints relating to inadequate gas supply, transmission constraints, limited distribution networks, and commercially induced low load off-take by Discos,” it said.
According to NERC, the average load factor, that is, the amount of energy that a power plant generated over a certain period relative to its available capacity for the said period recorded an increase to 67.59 per cent from the 56.66 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter.
Jebba and Kanji had 90.35 per cent and 88.92 per cent of their available capacities dispatched by the system operator and were respectively first and second with the highest dispatch rates, the commission said.
During the period, the Azura power plant had a load factor of 87.87 per cent while Ihovbor NIPP had the least dispatch rate of 36.06 per cent, the report stressed.
In terms of the generation mix, although thermal (gas) share declined from the preceding quarter, NERC noted that it still dominated the electricity generation mix accounting for 75.29 per cent of the electricity generated during the fourth quarter of 2020.
“This implies that approximately 7.53kWh of every 10kWh of electric energy generated in Nigeria in the fourth quarter of 2020 came from gas.
“Relative to the preceding quarter, there was a 1.16 percentage point increase in the share of electric energy generated from hydro which accounted for 24.71 per cent of the total energy output.
“Notwithstanding the marginal increase in hydro contribution to energy output, the commission notes with concern the low security of supply associated with having just two energy mixes and significant dominance of gas fuel as acts of vandalism of gas pipelines could result in serious grid instability, as was experienced in 2016.
“To ensure continuous improvement in the generation mix, the commission shall continue to work with other key stakeholders in NESI to develop regulatory interventions and implement policy actions necessary for the actualisation of improved energy mix through clean coal–to–power generation, and on-grid/off-grid renewables,” it stated.
In all, the power sector regulatory agency explained that the industry witnessed a slight decline in the stability of the grid network during the fourth quarter of 2020 relative to the third quarter of 2020.
Similar to the preceding quarter, it said that there was no incident of partial system collapse during the fourth quarter of 2020, but added, however, that the industry recorded one total system collapse, leading to a blackout nationwide.
According to NERC, Jos and Kano Discos had consistently had lower energy offtake than their allocation in the last eight quarters, while Abuja, Enugu, Eko, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, and Yola Discos had more energy offtake than their Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) allocation over the same period.