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Fire outbreak at Egbin Power Plant forces 630MW drop in daily electricity generation
Fire outbreak at Egbin Power Plant in Ikorodu, Lagos State, led to the shut down of operation by the company, which forced a 630 megawatts (MW) drop in daily electricity generation in the country.
Several places in Lagos State were thrown into long hours of darkness since the incident last Wednesday.
The shutdown of the Egbin Power Plant after the fire outbreak, in addition to the load reduction mechanism policy of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to prevent system collapse, resulted in shortage of the electricity supply in the state. This was explained as the reason electricity consumers in Lagos and the environs have been experiencing constant power blackouts in recent times.
The management of the Egbin Power Plant in a statement last Friday, disclosed the fire outbreak at its power plant on Wednesday, at about 4.20pm, which the company attributed to be the cause of recurring blackout in several parts of Lagos State.
It was stated that the thermal plant has an installed capacity of 1,320MW consisting of six turbines of 220MW each, while its actual average generating capacity is about 800MW.
The management of the Egbin Power Plant, however, disclosed that a combined team of the company’s firefighters and firefighters from the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) in Egbin successfully extinguished the fire outbreak.
The management stated that operations at the plant have been temporarily suspended in line with the company’s safety procedures, while investigation has commenced to determine the cause of the fire outbreak.
The statement read in part: “Egbin has since activated its emergency response mechanism to determine the cause of the incident, while operations at the plant have been temporarily suspended in line with the plant’s safety procedures. Egbin is also working with the Federal Fire Service, the Federal Ministry of Power and other stakeholders to review the incident.”
It was gathered that the Public Affairs manager of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mrs. Ndidi Mba, pointed out the technical implications of the fire outbreak, saying the fire caused a shortage of 630MW daily electricity generation from the national grid.
According to Mba, “We know that there was a fire outbreak and the total generation of 630MW was removed from the grid because of that.
“You know, when a fire outbreak happens, even if it doesn’t affect the entire units, the tendency is that, to protect the other ones, you shut them down.
“So, as I said, 630mw was removed from the grid on that day.”
It was highlighted that Nigeria generates an average of 8,000mw of electricity daily, while the daily installed capacity is 13,800mw; with average transmission of 5,000mw, and distribution capacity between 3,000 and 2,500mw.
The Ikeja Electric (IE) distribution company, and the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) explained that the recent incessant electricity outages was a result of drop in power generation in the country after the Egbin Power Plant fire outbreak.
In the outskirts of Ikeja, places like Ogba, Obawole, Iju Road, Agege, Ishaga, etc., experienced 36 hours of power outage, and when restored, electricity supply was limited to six hours between 12 midnight and 6.00am.
The management of the Egbin Power Plant has, however, promised that the company’s working hard to resume operations.