15 August 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – POWER generation in Nigeria has reached a record 4,477.7 megawatts, mw, with 170mw being kept in the reserve.
News of the highest ever power generated in Nigeria was broken Tuesday by Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, a spokesman of the Power Minister, Prof Barth Nnaji.
The new generation level is 240.7mw higher than the peak 4,237mw achieved on August 6.
A statement by Anikwe quoting Nnaji, said the good news in the latest development is that “every power generated is wheeled comfortably” as against the situation in August, 2010 when the country generated 3,800mw for the first, but “the system collapsed within a few minutes because the transmission infrastructure was poorly maintained.”
Former PHCN executive director and former chief executive officer of the Egbin Power Station in Lagos, Mr Simeon Atakulu, said of the latest development: “It is significant that the new record in generation has been set even with the 1,320mw Egbin plant, the nation’s biggest power generator, doing only 600mw because it is undergoing routine maintenance.
“This means we have a spare power capacity of over 300mw.”
The new output increase is from the 600mw-capacity Shiroro Hydro Station in Niger State, which was falsely reported by a section of the media at the weekend to have been shut by junior electricity workers, allegedly protesting unresolved issues over the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.
