*Officials blame vandalism
*Consumers to face acute rationing soon
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
09 January 2015, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced that the maximum generated electricity available for it to transmit for distribution across the country has dropped to 3000 megawatts (MW)
This it blames on the vandalism of Nigeria’s key gas pipeline, the Trans-Forcados gas pipeline, saying it has resulted to a drop of available maximum distributable megawatts of electricity nationwide to 3000.
According to a statement that was signed by its Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs, Dave Ifabiyi in Abuja, TCN said that the unexpected drop in power generation has resulted in the country’s electricity generation which averaged about 4500MW in recent times dropping by nearly 1500MW.
Only last month, there were reports of unexpected and sharp decline in power generation across the country. Reports from the Ministry of Power website showed that the national electricity generation has dropped to 2,954.51MW in the early weeks of December, 2014, 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.
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 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.
Meanwhile, the TCN statement further observed that the latest drop will call for regular supply rationing because gas supply to three key power generation companies, Egbin, Olorunsogo, and Geregu have been affected with the development.
