Power Generation Tumbles 18 Months After 5,074MW Peak

• Power Generation Tumbles 18 Months After 5,074MW Peak

The nation’s power generation has been struggling to stay above the 3,000 megawatts mark more than a year after it hit a peak of 5,074.70MW, despite the reported increase in gas supply to power plants.

Electricity generation in the country has continued to hover between 2,000MW and 4,000MW in recent months.

The nation achieved its peak generation of 5,074.70MW on February 2, 2016, according to the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

But the improvement was short-lived as generation dropped below the 4,000MW mark later that month following militant attack of the Forcados pipeline.

The downturn in power generation was exacerbated in May last year by the several attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta, which made generation to plunge to a new low of 1,400MW on May 17, according to the TCN.

Total power generation, which dropped to as low as 2,563MW last month, stood at 3,229.8MW on August 16 from 2,447MW on August 5, the latest data obtained on Friday by our correspondent from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing stated.

The nation’s unutilised generation capacity stood at 2,750.2MW as of August 16, with 2,325.3MW due to frequency management occasioned by load demand by distribution companies, the report stated.

The report also showed that six power plants were not generating any megawatt of electricity that day.

The idle plants were given as Afam IV & V, Gbarain II, Ibom Power, AES, ASCO and Rivers IPP.

Electricity generation from the nation’s biggest power station, Egbin, located in Lagos, stood at 362MW as of 6am on August 16.

The power grid, which has suffered 13 total collapses this year, experienced its latest (partial) collapse on July 19.

At the Afam IV & V, units GT1 to 12 have been de-commissioned and scrapped; GT13 to 16 out on blade failure; GT17 and 18 out due to burnt generator transformer, and GT19 and 20 awaiting major overhaul.

Gbarain II’s GT2 was said to be out for frequency management, while the AES has been out of production since September 27, 2014.

Unit GT1 of ASCO has been shut down due to leakage in the furnace while Rivers IPP has been out of production since September 16, 2016.

Last month, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation reported that the average national daily gas supply to the nation’s power plants rose by 64 per cent in May.

It said the average gas supply to power plants of 729 million standard cubic feet of gas per day in May was 63.74 per cent higher than the daily gas supply to the plants, of 446mmscfd, during the same month in 2016.

The Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies, Dr. Joy Ogaji, recently announced that electricity producers were owed over N500bn by the market, adding that this had made it difficult for some of the Gencos to pay their gas suppliers.

Ogaji said, “For us to be able to procure gas, we need money. Gas companies are owed several billions by us. We are being owed nearly N600bn and we own gas companies nearly N200bn.”