OpeOluwani Akintayo
20 November 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Total electricity generated in the country in the first quarter of 2018 was 8,511,481MWh – two percent less than the generation level recorded in the last quarter of 2017.
According to statistics from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC’s, first quarter report for 2018, power generation dropped by two percent despite an increase in available generation units.
The quarterly industry’s daily generation peak of 5,047MW recorded on the 14th day of February 2018 was also less than that of the preceding quarter.
With the decrease in generation, not surprisingly, the average utilisation rate of the total available generation capacity declined by 1.1% from 54.4% recorded in the last quarter of 2017.
NERC said factors that affected the level of generation included transmission line and distribution networks limitations and water management.
Gas constraint was responsible for the loss of 1, 916MW in the quarter, representing a whopping 74 percent loss.
Water management caused loss of 135MW (5 percent), 85MW (3 percent) was lost due to transmission line limitation while limited distribution network caused the loss of 462MW, representing 18 percent of the total loss.
NERC said resolving these constraints remained its “top priority”.
The commission also said it had started executing the actionable items identified in its 2017-2020 Strategic Plan which involved initiating a process for thorough technical assessment of Discos’ utilisation of capital expenditure allowances for relevance and cost efficiency.
The commission also said it is planning a tariff reset that adequately provides for revenue requirement necessary for TCN and Discos’ optimal performance.
