Power generation drops by 1,153MW

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The nation has lost 1,153.66 megawatts of power in the last 20 days, worsening the load shedding arrangement that electricity distribution companies have been subjecting their consumers to.

The electricity generated on Sunday, December 13, stood at 3,730.24MW, down from a peak of 4,883.90MW achieved on November 23, according to data from the Federal Ministry of Power.

Following the dip in generation, power supply to households and businesses across the country dropped to 3,651.82MW on December 13 from 3,920.07MW on December 8 when generation stood at 4,008MW.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, had recently said subject to budgetary provisions, the ministry would build some critical infrastructure to transport gas to the power plants in order to add 2,000MW to the country’s stock of power within the next 12 to15 months.

He said apart from the availability of gas infrastructure, other issues like environmental concerns and appropriate pricing for gas have had negative impact on electricity supply.

On the transmission network, Fashola was quoted in a statement as saying that today’s reality was that available power was slightly larger than the capacity that it could support, “else we will experience persistent system collapse.”

He said the government, through the Transmission Company of Nigeria, had identified 142 critical projects, of which 45 were at 50 per cent and above level of completion, and of these lot, further 22 projects could be completed within a year.

According to the statement, with budgetary provision, the government intends to aggressively pursue their completion to increase the carrying capacity from the generation companies to the distribution companies, from which the transmission carrying capacity must expand well ahead of the generating capacity that will take care of future expansion in power generation.

Source: Punch