NERC says three hydro power plants in Nigeria “must run”

FOLLOWING THE FORECAST OF the Nigerian Metrological Agency that there will be ravaging flooding resulting from long duration of rainfall this year, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has directed the three hydroelectric power stations; Kainji, Jebba, and Shiroro, to as a matter of compulsion, operate their plants.

The order, which was displayed on the commission’s website, was titled: Order on Mandatory Dispatch of Hydro Power Plant in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.

The investors in the plants, Mainstream Energy Solution Limited and North South Power Limited, have been under utilising the entities owing to load rejection and low demand from the electricity distribution companies (DisCos).

The DisCos in turn blame their decision on lack of a cost effective tariff and the weakness of the transmission network in the industry.

But the NERC yesterday said a major consequence of the meteorological event on the operations of the three hydropower stations (i.e. Jebba, Kainji and Shiroro) has been high rate of reservoir fillup which poses extreme environmental risks to lives/property downenergy.

stream from the plants that could result in submerging entire villages along the riverbanks.

The commission said its attention had been drawn to rising cost of wholesale energy to the electricity distributors in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) that was blamed on generated and wheeled The “increasing cost of wholesale energy to distribution licensees in NESI attributable to the generation mix of dispatched energy,” according to NERC.

According to the order that James Momoh, the NERC chairman, and. Dafe Akeneye, its commissioner, licensing and compliance, issued, the “must- run” status of the three plants shall be enforced in line with their daily nomination.

The commission assigned the System Operator (SO) of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to ensure strict compliance with the terms in the order in the dispatch of power plants in the industry.