*25 out of 160 licensees in operation
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Total electricity currently being generated by Nigeria’s 25 power plants is 6000 Megawatts.
Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies, Dr. Joy Ogaji, disclosed that instead of a total 13000MW capacity expected of the plants, generation is currently down to 6000MW.
Despite the low generation, according to her, the country is still unable to utilise all due to infrastructure challenges.
To verify her claim, data obtained by SweetcrudeReports from the Federal Ministry of Power showed that the highest quantity of power utilised in Nigeria as of July 6, 2020 was 4,370.7MW.
Nigeria’s power plants have since this year experienced several breakdowns throwing the country into hours of interrupted power supply.
She said, “The 25 plants that are currently operating have a combined installed capacity of over 13,000MW and they have an available capacity, which has dropped.
“As at last year we were almost hitting an available capacity of 9,000MW but a lot of challenges have now dropped it to, as of this morning, above 6,000MW. This is what is available, but out of that you know what is being utilised.”
Ogaji added, “At privatisation on November 1, 2013, power was slightly above 3,400MW but as at last year, the available capacity had been ramped up to nearly 9,000MW.
“So we had an available capacity of 9,000MW last year but this year it is now 6,000MW and even the 6,000MW we are not utilising all of it.”
She added that despite available 6000MW electricity, distribution companies known as the DisCos are still unable to take them all.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, the firm that transmits power from generation companies to distribution companies, had on several occasion decried the rejection of electricity by the distributors.
In a counter claim, DisCos have accused TCN of lacking adequate transmission lines to send needed electricity quantity to them for distribution.
TCN had also accused DisCos of load rejection in locations where they find it difficult to recoup electricity bills.
National Control Centre for the power sector puts Nigeria’s total demand forecast for electricity at about 28,000MW,and at 30, 000MW to reach minimum sufficiency.
The APGC executive secretary stated that only 25 firms were generating electricity in Nigeria out of the over 160 licensees who were issued licences by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to produce power.
“There are 124 power generation companies, majorly thermals – firms that use gas, that are just watching on the sideline, watching when the market gets serious before coming in,” Ogaji stated.
She added, “Their licences, a cumulative and aggregated number, will give us another 30,000MW if they were actively involved.”
She, however, noted that efforts were being made to address the challenges in the industry and urged stakeholders to support operators in the power sector.
