Power sector losses N69.1bn in seven weeks

The Advisory Power Team (APT) at the office of the Vice President has said the nation’s power sector lost N69.1bn between January 1 and February 19 this year due to the persistent challenges in the industry.

According to data from the APT released on Wednesday, the loss in the sector was due to insufficient gas supply to power generation plants as well as inadequate distribution and transmission infrastructure.

The data showed that a total of 2,332.95 megawatts of electricity was not generated due to the unavailability of gas on February 19, 2019.

The data further showed that 32.5MW of power was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 543MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure.

On the same day, 150MW of power was recorded as losses due to water management constraint.

The APT said: “The power sector lost an estimated N1.468bn on February 19, 2019 due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.

“The estimated amount lost to insufficient gas supply, distribution, transmission and water reserves to date in 2019 is N69,064,000,000.”

Also on February 19, 2019, the average energy sent out in the sector was 4,408MW-hour/hour, up by 3.28MWh/h from the previous day’s figure.

The APT further noted that the dominant constraint on February 19, 2019 was unavailability of gas, preventing a total of 2,332.95MW from being available on the grid, adding that peak generation attained on the same day was 5,017MW, while peak average energy ever sent out was 4,557MWH/H on February 2, 2016.

The peak generation ever attained was put at 5,375MW, which was recorded on February 7, 2019.