Electricity Generation In Nigeria Drops to 2,775mw

Nigeria’s power generation has dropped from the 4,500 Megawatts (MW) recorded in June, to 2,775.8MW on July 24, 2017. The Nigerian Electricity System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which made this known in its operational report released on Wednesday, put the highest system frequency at 50.66Hz while the lowest system frequency was 49.51Hz.

Power generation has continued to fluctuate around 3,227mw, 3,504mw, 3,285mw, 3,656mw, 3,579mw, 2,898mw and 2,829mw in the last few weeks. The inability of the generation companies to meet national demand has resulted to daily revenue losses of over N1.30billion.

Specifically, the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry Statistics (NESI) showed that the power sector lost an estimated N1.219 billion on July 23, due to constraints.

According to NESI, the industry lost 814mw to gas constraints; and 172mw to reported frequency management constraint due to loss of DisCo feeders. Decrying the state of the country’s power sector, Professor of Economics, University of Ibadan, Adeola Festus Adenikinju, argued that Nigeria is well endowed in energy resources, saying that the wealth from the resources has not been translated into actual economic developments that will benefit the citizens of the country.

Adenikinju added that potential investors are doubtful that government will be committed to the reforms, and hence stall on making investment, adding that low quality and reliability of power supply has forced firms to invest in costly alternative private provision.

He noted that public investment in the energy sector, in particular, the power sector, which he said, until the last three years was exclusively under the government, has been inadequate, unpredictable, and uneven over the years.

Spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ndu Ughammadu, said the average natural gas supply to power plants of 729 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) in May was 63.74 per cent higher than the 446mmscfd, supplied a year ago.

He added that the average national daily gas production for May, stood at 242.70billion cubic feet (BCF); or an average of 7,829.11mmscfd, representing a slight increase, compared with April levels of 672mmscfd.

Source: - Roseline Okere | The Guardian | July 27, 2017.