Oscarline Onwuemenyi
9 October 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja- The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has announced plans to shut down five power plants across the country, a plan that will drastically reduce the present state of power generation.
The announcement, which was made on Sunday by the Company may likely hurt the Federal Government’s ambitions to attain about 5,000 megawatts of electricity by the end of December, 2011.
Only a few weeks ago, the government celebrated the achievement of over 4,050 MW, marking the highest quantum of electricity generated in the history of the nation.
According to the statement by PHCN, it “regrets to inform its esteemed customers nationwide of the notice received from Nigeria Gas Company Limited (NGC) of the planned shutdown of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Utorogu and Ughelli East Gas Plants, Oben, Sapele and Ogharefe gas plants of Saplet and Pan Ocean for maintenance purposes.
“This will be for a period of seven (7) days commencing Tuesday, 11 October, 2011.”
The maintenance according to NGC will lead to complete shutdown of Geregu, Sapele, Ughelli, Omotosho and Olorunsogo power stations throughout the duration of the exercise, thus resulting to a cut back in generation of over 1400MW.
It added that, “This loss of generation will entail minimal load shedding in many parts of the country.
“We therefore appeal to our valued customers and other stakeholders for understanding and support, while assuring that power supply situation will considerably improve once gas supply is restored to these stations.”
