Nigerians to witness more darkness as power drops

The nation’s power generation plunged by 777.9 megawatts on Monday as output from the hydropower plants and some gas-fired stations, including Egbin in Lagos, suffered declines.

A total generation capacity of 4,463.3MW was unavailable as of 6am on Monday, compared to 3,631.4MW on Friday, according to the latest data obtained by our correspondent from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

Gas constraints and frequency management occasioned by electricity distribution companies’ load demand left 2,365.5MW and 2,087MW, respectively idle.

Total electricity generation, which stood at 3,462MW as of 6am on Sunday, fell to 2,684.20MW on Monday.

The nation generates most of its electricity from gas-fired power plants, while output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 per cent of the total generation.

Generation from Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro hydro plants dropped to 203MW, 133MW and 162MWm, respectively as of 6am on Monday from 275MW, 317MW, 376MW on Friday, August 10.

Kainji’s unit 1G7 was said to be out on stator winding failure; 1G8, out due to oil leakage on governor runner head; 1G9, out due to burnt 7.5MVA 33/0.415kV and 183.6MVA 16/330kV station service transformer and generator transformer; and 1G10 was shut down due to thrust bearing temperature problem.

Three units at Jebba, 2G2, 3 and 4, were said to be out on frequency management, while 2G6 was out due to burnt generator winding and automatic voltage regulator.

It was gathered that Shiroro’s 411G1, 411G2 and 411G3 recorded reduced generation on frequency management; while unit 411G 4 was out on maintenance.

The three hydropower plants generated a total of 1,293MW as of January 5, translating to about 36.7 per cent of the total national generation of 3,517.5MW that day.

Output from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station, fell from 567MW as of 6am on Sunday to 436MW on Monday.

Six power plants, namely Geregu I, Geregu NIPP, Odukpani NIPP, Ibom Power, AES and ASCO, did not generate any megawatt as of 6am on Monday.

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The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, at the 29th Monthly Power Sector Meeting in Niger, said, “Those who know and who genuinely desire to solve problems in this industry do not need to be told that the most pressing challenge of the sector today lies at the distribution end.”