Poor Power Supply Persists Despite Rise in Supply to 3,578 MW

Power supply in Nigeria has continued to falter in spite of an improvement in the megawatts as made available in the media.

 

Power generation has risen from 3,161 megawatts, MW to 3,578 MW over the weekend as Electricity Generating Companies; GENCOs continue to increase generation after the recent system collapse.

 

This showed 9,222MW below the nation’s 12, 800 estimated daily national demand, meaning that many individuals, households and companies did not have constant and adequate supply in all parts of the nation.

 

The Presidency report that indicated this on Sunday stated that, “On May 06 2017, average power sent out was 3578Wh/hour (up by 417MWh/h). The reported gas constraint was 2388MW.”

 

“The reported line constraint was 332MW. The reported high frequency constraint was 849MW. The water management constraint was 375MW. The power sector lost an estimated N1, 893,000, 000 on May 06 2017 due to constraints. Egbin is reporting higher gas constraints than before, causing further generation reduction,” it added.

 

A few days ago, electricity supply in Nigeria had dropped by 29 per cent because of a system collapse that affected the generation, transmission and distribution of power nationwide.

 

Authoritative Presidency report had disclosed that power supply which stood at 3,717MW on April 2, 2017, dropped to 2, 638MW, on April 9, 2017.

 

“On April 09 2017, average power sent out was 2, 638Wh/hour, down by 698MWh/h. The reported gas constraint was 2603MW. The reported line constraint was 0MW. The reported high frequency constraint was 282MW. The water management constraint was 0MW.”

 

“The power sector lost an estimated N1, 428,000, 000 on April 09 2017 due to constraints. There was heavy rainfall reported from Onitsha T/S, Benin T/S & Alaoji T/S which led to area load reduction from 70MW to 15MW, 100MW to 20MW & 300MW to 51MW respectively.”

 

“These led to rise in system frequency and voltage which subsequently resulted to the transmission line drippings as indicated in reports from stations. 06:21Hrs, the system frequency sharply dropped from 51.03Hz to 47.48Hz followed by system collapse..,” it had added.

 

Investigations had showed that the power generated was inadequate, considering the nation’s over 15,000 MW estimated daily national demand. Mr. Muda Yusuf, the Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had indicated in a telephone interview that the nation’s poor power situation has crippled operations in many sectors of the nation’s economy.

 

He had said that investors in many sectors, especially manufacturing, telecoms and agriculture have been compelled to generate their independent power at higher cost. Yusuf had pointed out that the high cost of generating power has culminated in the high cost of goods and services, making locally produced goods uncompetitive in the global market.