Oscarline Onwuemenyi
16 December 2014, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Plans by the Federal Government to generate at least 5000 megawatts of electricity by the end of the year continues to be a mirage as reported power generation consistently falls short.
In the latest setback, reports from the Ministry of Power website show that the national electricity generation has dropped to 2,954.51MW over the past few weeks, putting a lot of pressure on available power.
According to the website, a total of about 3,206.09MW was generated as at December 2, 2014 only to drop to 2,954.51 by December 11, a reduction of 251.58MW in nine days.
Although, no official reason was given for the sharp decline, some officials are blaming gas supply challenges as well as the end of the rainy season and the consequent shortage of water to hydro installations across the country.
The Senior Special Adviser to the Minister of Power, Mr. Frank Edozie, however, blamed the drop in power generation to sabotage of pipelines and inadequate gas supply.
Edozie, who disclosed this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said the ongoing epileptic power supply being experienced across the country was caused by recent vandalism of Transforcados pipeline that transported crude oil.
He said, “Inadequate gas supply and frequent sabotage of the pipelines had contributed immensely to lack of electricity supply in the country.
“We are constrained due to the gas challenges and it has contributed to the drop of power generation to 3,500 megawatts,” he said.
The senior special adviser said that available power generation capacity currently stood at 6,000 mega watts while system capacity stood at 5,000 mega watts.
Edozie said that the real challenge of epileptic power supply was caused by gas inadequacy.
According to him, presently, power generation as at today stood at 3,500 megawatts.
“We have not gone below that but we are gradually beefing up the generation to hit 5,000 mega watts as promised.”
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, from which the power distribution companies source electricity, has the capacity to transmit 6,000MW.
The Federal Government planned to generate 5,000MW in 2014.
The Ministry of Power indicated on its website that 64.01MW of the electricity was stranded on account of the weak and insufficient equipment used in distribution.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) from which the power distribution companies source electricity has capacity to transmit 6,000MW.
Peak energy demand forecast for the market, is 12,800MW.