*Egbin Thermal Power Plant.
25 October 2016, Lagos — NIGERIA’s power supply maintained an average of 4,154 megawatts (mw) in the first three weeks of this month, with generation for the period under review recording a peak of about 4,362Mw on the 12th of October.
It will be recalled that the country’s power generation attained its peak of 5074.7mw and also the highest maximum daily energy wheeled nationwide of 109,372mw hour (mwh) on Tuesday, 2nd February, 2016.
The nation’s power grid recorded 21 collapses in the first half of the year, made up of 16 total collapses and five partial collapses. In the whole of 2015 and 2014, the grid collapsed 10 and 13 times respectively, with four partial collapses each. This indicated a worsening power situation in 2016.
Statistics obtained from both the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, and the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, indicated that electricity generated by the Generation Companies, GENCOs, for the first week of the month averaged 4133mw, which latter dropped to 4088mw the following week, while 4224mw was recorded on the third week.
The report further revealed that energy generated in mwh, for the last three weeks averaged 85,726mwh, while energy sent out to the 11 distribution companies was 84,264mwh in the first week, went up to 85,120mwh in the second week before rising to 87, 630mhw in the third week.
Meanwhile, the off-peak generation, otherwise known as the lowest generation, stood at 3,203mw in the first week, while 3,248mw and 3,401mw were recorded in the second and third week respectively.
Though the country installed capacity stands at 11, 165.40mw, the country’s network operational capability remained 5,500mw. In spite of government’s efforts to increase electricity supply in the country, generation has continued to hover around 3,500mw and 4,000mw.
*Prince Okafor – Vanguard
