Ejiofor Alike
Electricity supply has continued to worsen with the system recording threats of collapse in two days as low water levels at the hydro stations and challenges of gas supply hamper improvement in power generation in recent weeks, THISDAY has learnt.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola had told Arise Television, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers that the frequent power outages were due to low water levels at the nation’s hydro power stations, with generation averaging 3,400 megawatts.
THISDAY’s investigation has revealed that the situation has worsened in the last one week with threats of system collapse occurring twice last week when the lowest daily generation went down to all-time low.
According to the Daily Power Broadcast obtained by THISDAY, the lowest daily generation, which normally exceeds 3,000 megawatts, slumped to 108.70 megawatts on April 9 and 240 megawatts on April 10.
The peak generation for the two days, it was learnt, was 3,831.80MW and 3,669.90MW, respectively.
It was gathered that the significant drop in supply almost led to threats of system collapse on two occasions within 24 hours as the system struggled to manage less than 3,000MW, which was the average supply during the period.
The poor power situation virtually remained the same on April 11, when peak generation dropped further to 3,624.90MW, while the lowest generation was 1,554.70MW.
Speaking off the records, a source at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) told THISDAY at the weekend that it was a ‘miracle’ that the system did not collapse completely as a result of the low generation.
“When generation is too high and the system collapses, that is when we blame the transmission system. But all these while, it is low generation that has been threatening the system. When generation drops to 3,000MW and below, nobody guarantees the stability of the system. So, it was a miracle that the system survived these past few days,” he explained.
The Daily Average Load Allocation obtained from the distribution companies showed that the 11 Discos were allocated less than half of their normal allocations on April 9 and 11.
The power situation did not show any significant improvement at the weekend as peak generation on Saturday was around 3,856.30MW, while lowest generation was 2,690.30MW.
Before the situation worsened in recent weeks, peak generation was 4,452MW on March 22; 4,072.70MW on March 29 and 4,199MW on March 30, THISDAY’s investigation further showed.
Fashola had also blamed the abysmally low generation to the shutting down of two power stations, assuring Nigerians, however, that government was determined to average generation at 3,400MW.
“Two of our plants are down; they are trying to evacuate the condensates. We are, however, keeping power generation at about 3,400MW,” he had said, expressing hope that with the advent of the rain season and restoration of the hydro stations, generation would be ramped up to 4,000MW.
