OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Electricity generation declined in the second quarter of this year as the average plant generation units available dropped by 16 units in the second quarter of the year.
Statistics from the System Operator, SO, said the industry’s highest peak daily generation of 5,348MW for the second quarter of 2019 was recorded on the 3rd of April 2019.
The available average generation capacity further declined by 0.56% to 6,069MW in the second quarter of 2019.
The consecutive decrease in generation was attributable to the very high number of generation units undergoing maintenance and overhaul, which made them unavailable for electricity generation.
Although the average plant generation units available during the quarter under review increased by 1 unit to 62 units, this is significantly lower than the 78 generation units available in 2018.
Despite the increase in available generation plant units in the second quarter relative to the first quarter, the electric energy generated declined by 5.59% to 8,451,428MWh from 8,951,869MWh recorded in the first quarter of 2019.
A review of both the daily average generation and available capacity (in MW) from the first quarter (January-March) to the second quarter (April–June) of 2019, showed that 63.79% of available capacity was utilised in the second quarter of 2019, indicating 4.34 percentage points decrease from the capacity utilisation rate during the preceding quarter.