Nigeria’s power generation dipped by 3,036 megawatts in two days last week due to multi-pronged operational challenges bordering on water, frequency, line and gas supply constraints, an official document has revealed.
An official document on the daily operational record of the power sector on Saturday, July 21, sourced by the media from the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, indicated that some of the power plants that lacked gas to operate include, the 754 megawatts (MW) Olorunsogo NIPP plant; the Alaoji NIPP plant with 504 megwatts capacity, the Calabar National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plant with 634.5 megawatts capacity, amongst others.
The document showed that the three plants could not generate 230MW; 360MW; and 360MW respectively. Apart from the listed entities, reasons for the shutdown of three other plants – 270MW AES power plant; 180MW Rivers IPP and ASCO plant were not stated in the report.
However, the report reflected that the Geregu NIPP in Kogi State; Omotosho II; Olorunsogo in Ogun State; Geregu 1; Omoku in Rivers State; Omotosho NIPP in Ondo State; Afam VI; Azura Edo; Egbin in Lagos State; Delta; Shiroro; and Jebba also had power delivery challenges of gas, and water and frequency constraints.
Similarly, the record also indicated that the constraints prevented the generation of 3,036MW of power, while only 3,399MW was available to the grid, adding that 1,664MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas, 39.4MW due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure, 40MW due to water management issues, and 1,293MW due to frequency constraints,.
Also reflected in the report for the covered period was that Delta; Egbin; Shiroro; Azura Edo; Afam VI; Geregu; Olorunsogo; and Omotosho NIPP plants could not generate 431.25MW; 445.66MW; 230MW; 211MW; 225MW; 168MW; 140MW; and 120MW respectively due to frequency constraints.
This is even as the document showed that the Jebba power plant could not generate 40MW due to water management problem, while Olorunsogo; Omotosho; Geregu and Omotosho NIPPs lost 152MW; 152MW; 145MW; and 120MW respectively on account of gas constraints.
According to the report, Ibom power plant could not generate 39.4MW because of line constraints.
The report stated: “On July 21, 2018, average power sent out was 3,399MWh/hour – down by 81MWh/h from the previous day. 1,664MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas. 39.4MW was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 1,293MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure.
“40MW was recorded as losses due to water management. The power sector lost an estimated N1, 457,000,000 on July 21, 2018 due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.
“On July 20, 2018, average power sent out was 3,480MWh/hour – down by 381.22MWh/h from the previous day. 1,626MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas. 196.6MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure. 160MW was recorded as losses due to water management.
“The power sector lost an estimated N1,432,000,000 on July 20, 2018 due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure. The dominant constraint on July 20, 2018 remained unavailability of gas – constraining a total of 1,626MW from being available on the grid”, it added.
