OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Despite a paltry power production of below 5000megawatts (MW) per day, Nigeria; West Africa’s largest economy and Africa’s most populous country’s utility firms, still reject almost 2500MW per day.
Nigeria’s power distribution arm is currently being run by 10 privately owned firms; Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, and of course; Yola DisCo currently under the federal government.
Data obtained from the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN on the national grid puts total rejected electricity at 2,495.3MW in one week.
This raises the question as to why 2,495.3MW would be left unutilised despite the huge demand for electricity by the country’s over 200 million population.
Experts say the country needs at least 30, 000MW to reach sufficiency.
A breakdown of the report showed that; from April 2 to April 8, 2022, some Discos failed to utilise over 2,400MW of electricity during the period despite being allocated.
Although the report said some Discos took and distributed excess load than allocated during the reviewed week, however, others failed to distribute a huge quantity of electricity daily.
For instance; on April 2, a total of 373.97MW of power was unutilised by five power distribution companies, as Eko did not utilise 118.29MW; Ibadan, 169.77MW; Ikeja, 63.19MW; Kano, 13.18MW; and Port Harcourt, 9.54MW.
On April 3, six power distributors failed to utilise 189.84MW. They include Eko, 26.99MW; Enugu, 1.65MW; Ibadan, 44.85MW; Ikeja, 51.66MW; Kano, 48.35MW and Port Harcourt, 16.34MW.
The number of Discos with unutilised electricity load increased to eight on April 4, as a total of 309.2MW was not distributed to customers across the country by the power firms.
Eko Disco did not utilise 27.10MW; Enugu, 78.18MW; Ibadan, 60.39MW; Ikeja, 46.03MW; Jos, 23.74MW; Kaduna, 5.35MW; Kano, 50.28MW; and Port Harcourt, 18.13MW.
The report further showed that on April 5, seven Discos failed to utilise 238.44MW of electricity and they include Eko, 44.49MW; Enugu, 20.05MW; Ibadan, 35.11MW; Ikeja, 67.39MW; Jos, 4.12MW; Kaduna, 9.86MW; and Kano, 57.22MW.
The highest quantum of unutilised power during the review week was recorded on April 6, as seven power distributors failed to utilise nor distributed 596.07MW of electricity to consumers.
Benin Disco did not utilise 40.42MW; Eko, 200.59MW; Enugu, 66.58MW; Ibadan, 46.54MW; Ikeja, 199.05MW; Jos, 19.50MW; and Kano, 23.39MW.
It was also observed that on April 7, seven Discos could not utilise 424.63MW. The Discos include Benin, 4.58MW; Eko, 127.86MW; Enugu, 69.65MW; Ibadan, 39.95MW; Ikeja, 114.12MW; Jos, 30.04MW; and Kano, 42.43MW.
On April 8, six Discos failed to utilise 363.15MW of electricity, as the unutilised load of Benin Disco was 42.91MW; Eko, 86.97MW; Enugu, 30.94MW; Ibadan, 112.12MW; Ikeja, 89.28MW; and Kano, 0.93MW.
Although Nigeria has an installed capacity of 12,500 megawatts, its electricity woes continue on the rise, with daily power generation currently not up to 5000MW.
Low electricity supply is also often cited by businesses as a key issue hindering growth in the country.
The country’s power sector was privatised in 2013, however, the federal government still provides different intervention funds to ramp up quality of service delivery.
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