Nigeria’s power
generation collapsed completely on Thursday, 31st March, 2016 at
exactly 12.58pm to zero megawatt and this persisted for about three hours.
Data from the
country’s System Operator showed that around 1pm on Thursday, no power
generation company in Nigeria produced a single megawatt of electricity.
Industry operators revealed that as a result of the complete collapse, no
electricity distribution company received load allocation beginning from when
the collapse was recorded up till around 3pm.
The SO stated that the
11 distribution companies got zero electricity load allocation during the
period of the collapse, meaning that for about three hours on Thursday, 31st March 2016, no part
of Nigeria got power supply from the national grid.
Sources in the sector also said that supply of electricity was restored around 3pm. For instance, out of
the 450MW that was due Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, the Disco only
got about 50MW when the situation began to improve.
Before the collapse,
AEDC got an allocation of 257.97MW and the nationwide generation level stood at
2,243.2MW.
Sources in the sector
blamed the complete collapse in power generation on the extent of destruction
of infrastructure and gas pipelines vandalism that had happened in the industry
over the past years, as well as the poor upgrade of power installations across
the country.
“The power crisis
being experienced nationwide since Tuesday this week has worsened on Thursday
with a total system collapse at exactly 12.58pm this afternoon. At that point,
the nation went to ground zero, with all the Discos receiving zero MW
allocation from the System Operator,” an operator in the sector declared.
Officials from the Federal
Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as well as private investors, had
attributed the never-ending fall in electricity generation to vandalism of gas
pipelines and destruction of vital infrastructure in the industry by
miscreants.
“Aside pipelines vandalism,
some miscreants have been involved in the destruction of vital power
infrastructure and this has been affecting not just generation but transmission
and distribution as well,” a senior official at the power ministry who spoke on
condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter, had
said.
The official also
stressed that the ongoing difficulty in the downstream oil industry was also
impacting negatively on the power sector.
Update On The State Of
Power Supply
Minister
of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola says ongoing infrastructural
intervention in the power sector is a reflection of the federal government
commitment to improve the state of power supply in the country.
The
minister gave the indication today at a dispute resolution ceremony between the
Enugu electricity distribution company and Geometrics Power on the 141 Aba
Megawatts power plant located in the commercial town of Aba in Abia state.
He
described the ongoing energy crisis in the country as temporary going by the
massive investment that is presently been channeled into the sector.
Fashola
said the willingness of parties involved in the Aba power plant dispute to
resolve their differences will bring more stable power supply to the residents
and investments in the commercial town.
He
further warned against efforts targeted at sabotaging efforts by government to
reposition the sector saying government investment must be adequately
protection for the nation to experience improved supply of power.
Earlier,
the permanent secretary in the ministry, Louis Edozien said the resolution of
the crisis between the parties will enhance more efficient power supply within
Aba and its environs.
For
the representatives of Geometrics and the Enugu electricity distribution
company, former minister of Power Barth Nnaji and Prince Adetokunbo Ademola, they
decided to settle out of court as part of effort to complement efforts of
government to improve power supply to residents and industries in Aba.
The
27 kilometer Aba power plant is the first independent power plant in Nigeria.
The
plant which was completed in 2014 had been enmeshed in dispute largely
responsible for reasons it is yet to commence operations.
SPONSORED BY:
Bookmia Online Books
SPONSORED BY:
Bookmia Online Books
No comments:
Post a Comment