Poor Delivery Infrastructure Stalls Power Supply at 3,876MW
Electricity supply to Nigeria’s national
grid has remained abysmally low at an average of 3,876MW in 2019 due
largely to poor distribution infrastructure, a report from the Advisory
Power Team in the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,
yesterday showed.
The report, which was obtained by
THISDAY, indicated that power supply from the national grid to homes and
offices in Nigeria has remained at an average low of 3,876 MW from
January to August, and four months into the second term of President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Osinbajo’s office stated that between January and August, the country’s average power supply levels remained at 3,876MW.
The records indicated that the average volume of power constrained daily
from getting to the grid on account of poor transmission and
distribution infrastructure as well as shortage in gas supply among
other issues was 3,288MW.
The development also ensured that up to
N383.528 billion has been lost by the industry due to constrained
volumes within the period under consideration.
According to the report for example, the dominant constraint has been
shortage of gas supply, which on January 1 resulted to 1,908MW not
generated while 2,021MW was also not generated on January 15 as a result
of gas supply challenges. On February 20, up to 2,660MW of electricity
was shut in from inadequate gas supply.
Also on March 10, up to 2,774MW of
electricity could not be supplied due to gas constraints just as 1,884MW
could not get to the grid on March 30 for the same reason. Between
April 2 and 15, the report showed that approximately 1,977MW and 2,077MW
were not generated respectively as well as 2,507MW and 1,956MW between
March 2 and 18 respectively.
On June 5, 1,959MW was shut in and
another 1,803MW on June 21. Between July 1 and 23, it stated that
1,993MW and 1,862MW were not generated to the grid on account of poor
gas supply, while 1,455MW and 1,531MW were equally unavailable for the
same reason on August 2 and 24 respectively.
The report identified poor distribution and transmission infrastructure as reasons for the low supply situation.
It stated for instance that on August 24, “1,531.50MW was not generated
due to unavailability of gas. 78.90MW was not generated due to
unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 2,468.50 MW was not
generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of
distribution infrastructure.
“The dominant constraint on August 24, 2019 was due to high frequency
resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure –
constraining a total of 2,468.50MW from being available on the grid.”
Referencing the development as an unwholesome development, the Chairman
of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof. James
Momoh, recently stated that the volume of electricity constrained was
now almost equal to what was generated into the national grid.
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