Poor Delivery Infrastructure Stalls Power Supply at 3,876MW

Poor Delivery Infrastructure Stalls Power Supply at 3,876MW

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

Electricity supply to Nigeria’s national grid has remained abysmally low at an average of 3,876MW in 2019 due largely to poor distribution infrastructure, a report from the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday showed.

The report, which was obtained by THISDAY, indicated that power supply from the national grid to homes and offices in Nigeria has remained at an average low of 3,876 MW from January to August, and four months into the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Osinbajo’s office stated that between January and August, the country’s average power supply levels remained at 3,876MW.

The records indicated that the average volume of power constrained daily from getting to the grid on account of poor transmission and distribution infrastructure as well as shortage in gas supply among other issues was 3,288MW.

The development also ensured that up to N383.528 billion has been lost by the industry due to constrained volumes within the period under consideration.

According to the report for example, the dominant constraint has been shortage of gas supply, which on January 1 resulted to 1,908MW not generated while 2,021MW was also not generated on January 15 as a result of gas supply challenges. On February 20, up to 2,660MW of electricity was shut in from inadequate gas supply.

Also on March 10, up to 2,774MW of electricity could not be supplied due to gas constraints just as 1,884MW could not get to the grid on March 30 for the same reason. Between April 2 and 15, the report showed that approximately 1,977MW and 2,077MW were not generated respectively as well as 2,507MW and 1,956MW between March 2 and 18 respectively.

On June 5, 1,959MW was shut in and another 1,803MW on June 21. Between July 1 and 23, it stated that 1,993MW and 1,862MW were not generated to the grid on account of poor gas supply, while 1,455MW and 1,531MW were equally unavailable for the same reason on August 2 and 24 respectively.

The report identified poor distribution and transmission infrastructure as reasons for the low supply situation.

It stated for instance that on August 24, “1,531.50MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas. 78.90MW was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 2,468.50 MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure.

“The dominant constraint on August 24, 2019 was due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure – constraining a total of 2,468.50MW from being available on the grid.”

Referencing the development as an unwholesome development, the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof. James Momoh, recently stated that the volume of electricity constrained was now almost equal to what was generated into the national grid.

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