Oscarline Onwuemenyi
20 August 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The electricity grid in the country rose to 4,133megawatts (mw), the first time in about six months after acts of vandalism of gas fuel channels cut supply to about 23 power plants.
Statistics obtained from the Nigeria System Operator (SO), an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) yesterday showed that 4,133mw was the peak generation on Wednesday while the lowest generation the same day was 3,282mw. Peak generation for yesterday (Thursday) however dropped to 3,815mw.
After the grid attained 5,074mw on February 2, 2016, series of vandalism of oil and gas pipelines brought down generation to as low as 88mw. The trend fluctuated through March to June with the highest output at an average 2,400mw.
Further checks also showed that the grid maintained above 3,000mw for over 20 days in July. The trend continued till Wednesday when power generation crossed to the 4,000mw peak generation.
However, it was over 900mw short of the historic 5,000mw attainment of February.
The total operational turbines for generating power reduced from over 90 this year to about 35 in June. The operational units however have increased to 48 last Sunday, a weekly report from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said.
