Ike Amos
17 August 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has blamed power distribution companies’ (DISCO) continuous load rejection for the recent drop in electricity generation and supply across the country.
In a statement in Abuja, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, disclosed that there is adequate gas for power generation, while he stated that the recent drop in electricity generation was as a result of some factors outside the control of the NNPC.
According to Ughamadu, the country’s power generation dropped by 712 megawatts (MW) on Monday 13th August 2018, compared to the previous day’s generation as output from all the hydropower plants and some gas-fired stations, including Egbin in Lagos, suffered decline.
He argued that the drop in power generation could have been triggered mainly by the continuous rejection of load by the Discos as a result of frequency management.
Ughamadu added that despite improved gas supply which picked up after a temporary setback due to a hitch at one of its Joint Venture partners’ operated fields, the gas grid was still experiencing low offtake by the generating companies (Gencos) as a result of load rejection by the Discos.
He said, “The prevailing significant drop in power generation was mainly due to three factors, namely: a reduction in power generation by the three Hydro Power Plants by 434MW due to frequency management issues arising from continuous rejection of load by the Discos; a drop in power generation by some gas-fired power plants generation by 278MW mainly due to frequency management as a result of rejection of load by Discos; and the shut-down of the Gbarain Power Plant due to a trip-off at the Alaoji/Owerri 132KV lines 1 and 2.”
He added that power evacuation remained a major challenge across the value chain with an average of 1,800MW unutilized generation capacity weekly due to frequency management and line constraints.
The NNPC spokesman maintained that as critical partners in the electricity generation matrix, the NNPC was willing to work with other stakeholders to resolve the temporary setback in line with the Federal Government’s aspiration for the power sector.
“There is an urgent need to fix the challenges with power evacuation for significant improvement in power generation across the nation,” Ughamadu said.