Oscarline Onwuemenyi
04 November 2013, Abuja – The management of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has said that there will be a reduction in national generation output by 400MW, from Monday 4th to Saturday, 9th November, 2013.
The country presently generates less than 4,500MW of electricity, which has been grossly insufficient to meet power demand for both domestic and industrial uses.
A statement signed by the management of the company at the weekend noted that this is due to the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) scheduled maintenance work on Okoloma gas plant supplying gas to Afam VI Power Plant, thereby leading to the shutdown of the power plant, resulting in nationwide power rationing.
The TCN statement further noted that the shutdown of Afam VI power plant became necessary to allow SPDC inspect and carry out routine maintenance work on the Okoloma natural gas station in Afam, Rivers State, to ensure its technical integrity.
“Maintenance work on Okoloma gas plant, SPDC revealed, is important to guarantee continuous and uninterrupted supply of gas to Afam VI for power generation into the national grid,” it stated.
This reduction, it should be noted, is coming quickly at the heels of last week’s handover of several power assets to private operations across the country, amidst Federal government’s insistence that power supply is bound to improve with the transfer of assets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to private investors.
TCN added that it “sincerely regrets inconveniences the six-day power rationing will cause the Federal Government and our highly esteemed electricity consumers nationwide,” and assured that the maintenance work is in line with the present administration’s efforts to improve power supply in the country.