Outages as power grid drops to 4,000MW
There have been consistent outages in some parts of the country as the national electricity grid dropped from 5,036 megawatts (MW) attained on February 23, 2019 to 4,000MW threshold in the last eight days.
Reports on daily power operation from the Independent System Operator (ISO) obtained by Daily Trust, yesterday, show that the 5,000MW threshold celebrated much in February has dropped.
The highest power generation of 4,813MW occurred last Tuesday, February 26. The grid had declined continually and was at 4,438MW last Saturday.
The data showed there was record of system collapse in the last 12 days when the system experienced a partial collapse with power generation on the grid dipping to 107MW. However, the lowest power generation within the period under review was 2,519MW which was recorded on March 1.
As at Saturday, the lowest energy generation was 3,692MW during the off peak period where demand for power is said to be lower from the consumers under the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) in the country.
The peak generation for Monday began with 4,000MW, the record showed with hopes that it would rise.
However, major constraints identified in the daily operation report include poor load taking by the DisCos which account for most of the power losses. There was also gas constraint inadequate gas supply to some power stations for optimal operation; transmission line constraint and low water level for the hydropower GenCos.