Electricity Generation Drops as Idle Plants Rise to 11

The number of idle power plants on the national grid rose to 11 on Thursday, a day after a system collapse that plunged parts of the country into a blackout.

The country’s power grid collapsed on Wednesday for the first time this year.

Total power generation fell to 4,660.60 megawatts as of 6am on Thursday from 4,499.90MW on Wednesday, as two more plants, namely Afam IV&V and Sapele I, were shut down, according to the Nigerian Electricity System Operator.

Eleven power plants did not produce electricity as of 6am on Thursday, compared to nine that were idle the previous day.

Two units (GT11 and GT12) at Afam IV&V were said to have been decommissioned and scrapped, while GT13, GT14, GT15 and GT16 were out on blade failure.

Its GT17 was yet to be synchonised after system disturbance of Wednesday while GT18 was out due to synchronisation problem, the NESO said.

The other idle plants were Sapele II, Alaoji, Olorunsogo II, Ihovbor, Gbarain, Ibom Power, AES, ASCO and Egbin ST6.

The data showed that generation capacity of 1,881.1MW could not be utilised as of 6am on Monday as a result of gas constraints, low load demand by the distribution companies and water management.

The average energy sent out on Wednesday was 3,879 MW-hour/hour (down by 709.33 watt-hour/hour) from the previous day, according to the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice-President.

“The power sector lost an estimated N903m on February 17, 2021, due to constraints from insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure,” the APT said.

The nation generates most of its electricity from gas-fired power plants, while output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 per cent of the total generation.

The system operator put the nation’s installed generation capacity at 12,954.40MW; available capacity at 7,652.60MW; transmission wheeling capacity at 7,300MW; and the peak generation ever attained at 5520.4MW.