OpeOluwani Akintayo
08 July 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Although tales of power outages is not new in Nigeria, yet, the frequency and loss recorded daily have become frequent, with over 800 megawatts loss recorded in just one day.
Power lost to outages would have been channeled into meaningful uses, as they now pose a threat to the standard of living and industrialisation in Nigeria.
For instance, statistics obtained from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, shows that 812.8 megawatts were lost on Monday, the 2nd of July to various types of outages.
Nigeria currently produces 5000MW per day of power, however, Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said the country has a capacity of 7000MW generation.
Statistics showed that in power generation, forced outages had occurred on the said day between the hours of 06:28 am as the Trans Amadi GTs 2 and 3 tripped on reverse power due to tripping of Alaoji/Afam 132kV line 2. Total loss for the day was pegged at 40.5MW however, the problem was rectified within the hours of 10:38 when GT2 was tied and at 10:29Hrs when GT4 was also tied.
Another forced outage happened around 06:28hrs-06:59hrs as Omoku P/S GT6 tripped on system surge, leading to a loss of 21.2MW.
The same day, the third outage occurred around 10:34Hrs at Sapele NIPP GTs 1 & 3 tripped on reverse power while opening Sapele/Delta 330kV line (cct S4G) for a planned outage. Total loss LHR was at 87.7MW and 64.6MW respectively, and at 11:08Hrs, GT1 was tied and 19:55Hrs, GT3 was also tied.
The other two forced outages under generation occurred at 10:56hrs at Omoku P/S GTs, 1, 2, 5 &6 tripped on reverse power due to tripping of Alaoji/Afam 312kV line 2. Total LHR equaled 78.8MW. AT 12:15hrs, GT2 was tied, 12:18hrs GT 5 was tied, 12:23hrs, GT6 was tied, and at 12:25hrs, GT1 was tied, while at 10:56hrs, Trans-Amadi GTs 1, 2, & 4 tripped on reverse power due to tripping of Alaoji/Afam 132kV line 2, total of LHR of 60.5MW was recorded: at 12:32Hrs, GT2 was tied, 12;35Hrs, GT4 was tied and at 12:42Hrs, GT1 was also tied.
On power transmission, same day, three forced outages occurred at around 07:00-09:10hrs, 06:28-06:45hrs, and at 10:56-11:34hrs respectively.
The first transmission forced outage happened at the Benin/Irrua 312kV line CB which tripped at Benin T/S on E/F, FCT-21.2ms phase C, at 50.2km, resulting in 21MW LHR.
The second loss was 36MW LHR at Alaoji/Afam 312kV line 2 CB tripped at Alaoji T/S on Micom relay: O/C Red & Blue phases, L1, L2, L1>L2, while the third loss was 24MW at same Alaoji/Afam 312kV line 2 CB tripped at Alaoji T/S on Ohmega relay: zone 1, zone 2, phases A &B.
Same July 2nd, planned outages had happened around 10:34-16:38Hrs, Sapele/Delta 330kV line (cct S4G) was taken out to disconnect three phases’ jumpers at tower #139. No load loss was recorded as cct/G3B was in service.
Around 11:50-15:40hrs, Akoka T/S 45MVA, 132/33kV transformer TR1 was taken out to enable the maintenance crew carries out annual preventive maintenance on the transformer and its associated equipment. Load loss was pegged at 10MW.
An Urgent outage occurred around 07:12 through 24:00hrs at Delta GT10, resulting in a shutdown of the plant due to oil leakage. A 10MW load loss was recorded.
Another outage tagged ‘urgent’ occurred within the hours of 19:23-19:26 and 19:28-19:42 at the Osogbo/Akure/Ado-Ekiti 132kV line. Load loss was 35MW & 34mw respectively. Frequency was at 49.70Hz and 49.69Hz respectively.
On that same Monday, July 2nd, outages as a result of automatic trip-off under frequent operation, 33okV lines that were out on voltage control (cctc AIK, U1A &A1S), 330kv lines that were out on breaker problem, 330kv lines that were out on planned outage, 330kv lines that were out online fault (ccts K4U, J2H & S5B) and 330kv lines that were on soak (ccts N4J & F1K).
Miscellaneous outages occurred within the hours of 00:11-18:53 at Jebba 2G2 and were shut down on water management, load loss of 62MW was recorded.
Around 00:39-19:24hrs, a loss of 67MW was recorded at the Delta GT16 plant and was shut down due to frequent management.
Another 110MW was lost around 01:55-15:27Hrs at Afam VI GT12 plant. It was shut down on frequent management, while 71MW was lost around 08:47-10:39Hrs at Jebba 2G5 due to water management.
Around 17:05Hrs, the Akangba/Ijora 132kV line 1 was restored. The line tripped at 16:32Hrs of 29th June.
At 18:31Hrs, Shiroro 411G3 which was out on maintenance was tied.
At 19:03Hrs, Ajah T/S 100MVA 132/33kV transformer T7 was restored. The transformer tripped at 06:50Hrs of July 1, 2017, while within 09:15-20:30Hrs, Ibom Power GT3 went on island operation to feed Eket, Itu and Uyo due to an ongoing job on ccts K1U & K2U, a loss of 50.3MW were recorded.
The total loss recorded on Monday, July 2nd totaled 812.8MW out of 4684MW peak generation, and 3058MW lowest generation for that day.
For Sunday, July 1st, statistics showed that a whopping 1217.25MW was lost out of 4355MW peak generation, and 2399.5MW lowest generation.
Nigeria’s current power production of 5000MW is unable to go round even as recently, Executive Director of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies, ANED, Otunba Sunday Oduntan said the nation’s aggregate electricity need has been estimated at about 160,000MW to satisfy the local electricity demand.
According to him, “the rule of thumb for any developing industrial nation is that at the least one gigawatt (1000MW) of electricity generation and consumption is required for every one million population”.
Statistics for 30th of June showed that the country had lost a total 959MW out of 3680MW peak generation, and 2609MW lowest generation for that day.
The 2018 budget passed by the National Assembly, showed that the power sector got the lion share of N682, 959, 550, 242 out of a total N9.120, 334,988,225 earmarked.
Meanwhile, the G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub, GI Hub’s latest report tagged, Global Infrastructure Outlook, GI Hub also said an investment of $267 billion(96,253,500 trillion) is needed in Nigeria’s electricity sector alone by 2040 to meet rising demand.
This shows that if Nigeria’s power sector would attain sufficiency, it would be needing way above the total budget of the country, a level Africa’s largest economy is yet to attain.