Power supply collapses

Power supply collapses 

NIGERIANS were yesterday told to brace for more hardship – power supply will get worse. 

A terrible fuel shortage has shut down cities and businesses, forcing many who cannot afford the high transport fares to trek. 

As the government and fuel marketers battled yesterday in Abuja to resolve the problem, the news was broken that power supply had fallen to 727 Mega Watts (MW) – no thanks to the Sunday system collapse at the Shiroro Power Plant. Power Supply was 1,327 Mega Watts (MW) last week – a far cry from the 200,000MW Nigeria requires. 

Shiroro is a 600MW hydro electric plant on River Kaduna in Shiroro, Niger State. 

Abuja, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states are experiencing an unprecedented load shedding. The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has only 15 Mega Watts (MW). Residents are grumbling. 

“Up to about 18.50hours (or 6.50pm), only sensitive installations within the Central Business District of Abuja are on electricity supply,” a source said. 

The electricity supply became critical in Ogun, Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states in the last one week. 

In the last four days, electricity supply in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has been at the lowest ebb. The city has been in total darkness. 

The scarcity of petroleum products also compounded the crisis as virtually all petrol stations have closed down. 

In some parts of the city including Apata and Odo-Ona, residents said there has been no electricity supply for over two weeks 

The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) which supplies power to Edo, Ondo and Ekiti states, has been running a jingle on Adaba FM, urging the people to bear with it. According to the jingle, the low supply from the national grid is responsible for the problem. 

Spokesman of BEDC in Ekiti State Mr. Ilori Brown could not be reached on telephone last night. 

Last Thursday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, was reported to have said that power generation nationwide had dropped from 4,800MW to 1,327MW, leading to the massive load shedding across the country. 

The AEDC has been sending sms to its customers to apologise for the colossal drop in supply. 

The source added: “ You may also have received my company’s apology via a Bulk SMS we sent out to GSM subscribers in FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states, in which we explained the cause of the huge drop in supply to our customers, in view of the heavy drop in allocation to AEDC from the national grid, from about 450MW daily to less than 200MW in recent times. 

“In fact, our allocation for Friday, May 22, 2015 was 145MW, while both Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24, 2015, was 115.6MW. And the situation has been worsened by the system collapse at Shiroro this evening, which brought our supply down to 15MW.” 

Also yesterday, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said 18 of the 23 power plants in the country are unable to produce electricity due to shortage of gas supply for the thermal plants. 

NERC chairman Dr. Sam Amadi said : “At present, 18 of the 23 power plants in the country are unable to generate electricity due to shortage of gas supply to the thermal plants with one of the hydro stations faced with water management issue. This has led to loss of over 2,000 megawatts in the national grid.” 

According to him, in the last couple of months, electricity supply has been generally poor on account of increase in vandalism in the run-up to the April 2015 elections. 

But this bad supply condition, he said, has worsened in the last few days. 

The chairman noted that the situation is compounded by the recent industrial actions embarked upon by workers in the oil and gas industry, a development which is taking a toll on other sectors of the economy. 

He said gas supplies to the thermal plants had been further constrained by the industrial action in the oil and gas sector. 

The statement reads in part: “The Commission had proactively engaged the gas supply companies and its licencees when two weeks ago discussion was held on how to firm up gas supply in order to increase power supply. 

Source : The Nation