Electricity Supply Drops to 3,800MW

After what seems like an improvement in power generation in recent weeks, supply dropped to an average of 3,800 megawatts yesterday, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.

Before yesterday’s drop, average daily supply had exceeded 4,000 megawatts, with daily peak generation hitting 4,452 megawatts on March 23.

The daily operational report of the power sector showed that peak generation was 4,199.50 megawatts on March 30 and 4,244.70 on March 31.

However, on April 1, the situation worsened as peak generation was 3,995.60 while 3,491.40 was the lowest generation, according to the operational report.

The situation showed no significant improvement yesterday as an average of 3,800 megawatts was allocated to the 11 distribution companies, while 3,897.40 megawatts was sent to the grid by 06 a.m. yesterday, according to data by the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

As power generation continues the cyclic rise and drop, the generation and distribution companies (DISCOS) have blamed poor supply on gas shortages and grid instability caused by weak transmission infrastructure; the TCN blamed the Discos for rejecting power allocated to them.

However, gas suppliers have argued that there is enough gas to generate power but that the generation companies (Gencos) cannot pay for gas.

But the Gencos have insisted that they are not able to pay for gas because they are being owed for the power they generated into the national grid.