The epileptic power supply in Nigeria has persisted as pipeline vandalism continues to contribute the perennial shortage of gas to thermal power plants.
This is coming as the System and Market Operation Departments of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, on Monday, April 4, explained why Nigeria’s current electricity generation has remained quite low in recent weeks, blaming the situation on gas shortages to the generation plants in the southern part of the country.
TCN also explained that each time the country’s electricity generation falls below 3,500 megawatts (MW), there will be little power in the dedicated spinning reserve, hence the possibility of transmission system collapse.
Findings revealed that recent attacks on crude oil and gas pipelines disrupted supply of feedstock to gas-fired power generating plants, which account for over 78 per cent of power supply in the country.
The situation had worsened last Thursday when the whole country was plunged into darkness due to a nationwide system collapse.
The Chief Executive Officer of one of the electricity distribution companies (Discos) on Monday, April 4, that during last Thursday’s system disturbance, the 11 distribution companies were only “on station supply” where they could not service their customers.
“When you are on station supply, there is no power to give to your customers. This is because some power plants went down due to non-supply of gas. The only power you get from the national grid when you are on station supply is what you will use to run your base radio. You can’t send it to customers,” the CEO, who opted not to be quoted, said.
He also blamed weak transmission network for the country’s current power woes, saying that only a super grid would solve the country’s transmission challenges.
