Over 2,000MW lost
Gas shortage cripples 18 power plants
Blackout in Lagos, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun,
Abuja, Niger, others
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.
Unfortunately, not much progress was made
through this meeting as NNPC and its subsidiary
Nigeria Gas Company, disclosed of high incidence
of vandalism in some areas that were relatively
peaceful along its pipeline networks.
“That meeting was told of the damage done to
Trans-Forcados pipeline in the western axis and
elps gas pipeline in the eastern axis. Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation had explained at
the meeting that repair works are being intensified
even as it expressed worry on the integrity of the
pipelines on account of incessant damage it has
sustained.
“In essence, what has brought about this
development is the increased incidence of
vandalism which is beyond the control of the
regulator and the industry operators. This
situation is further compounded by the industry
actions declared by the oil and gas workers.
“However, we have continued to engage with
relevant authorities on how fast we can address
shortage of gas supply to the thermal plants. We
are also engaging with the industry operators on
how to improve electricity supply.
“The Commission regrets the hardship which
Nigerians are being subjected to on account of
this development as we intensify efforts to bring
the situation under control in the shortest
possible time.”
Banks in the North and GSM companies sent
messages on either likely disruption of service or
early closure of operations.
Some of the banks which shut out customers at
about 1pm are GTB, Skye and Fidelity.
But the Board and Management of Jos Electricity
Distribution company attributed the outage to
zero allocation of power from the Grid.
Of the 19 states in the North, , about 10 and the
FCT are experiencing outage.
But some of the worst-hit states are Niger,
Plateau, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Gombe, Benue and the
FCT.
As of 8pm, both the transmission and distribution
companies managing some parts of the North
attributed the outage to a system collapse which
has resulted in zero allocation of power from the
Grid.
The Board and Management of Jos Electricity
Distribution Plc (JED PLC) and the Mainstream
Energy Solutions Limited, Concessionaires of
Kainji and Jebba Power Plants have, however,
called for calm.
The Board and Management of Jos Electricity
Distribution Plc (JED PLC) said: “We would like to
appeal to our valued customers to remain calm in
the face of the dwindling power supply currently
experienced all over the country.
“The Company is doing everything possible to
ensure quality service and customer satisfaction
in the delivery of electricity to the customers.
“The company in the last few days has
experienced total blackout throughout the
Distribution Network following a system collapse
that resulted in a zero allocation of power from
the Grid.
“Over the past few months, we have engaged the
system operator on improved power supply or at
least our entitled load allocation in the Multi-
Year Tariff Order (MYTO).
“While we thank you for your understanding and
patience in this trying period, we wish to assure
you that we are doing everything humanly
possible to improve the quality of service to our
customers.
“We further call on our esteemed customers to
ensure timely payment of their bills to enable us
discharge our obligations to the market operator
and its customers.”
Reacting, the Mainstream Energy Solutions
Limited said: “Our attention has been drawn to
reports by a section of the media to the effect
that the Power System Collapse which occurred
around 4pm on Sunday, 24th May, 2015
occasioning outage in Abuja and other parts of
the country was caused by a breakdown at Jebba
Hydro Electric Power Station.
“It has become necessary to enlighten the
Nigerian public and to set the records straight.
“Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited,
Concessionaires of Kainji and Jebba Power Plants,
wish to state clearly that there has been no
breakdown at Kainji and Jebba plants.
“Precisely, Jebba Plant has 5nos. Generating Units
with combined available capacity of 400MW, while
Kainji has 4nos. Generating Units with combined
available capacity of 305 MW.
“As at the time the system collapse occurred, the
generating Units were on the National Grid. The
Units Separated due to the National Grid failure.
“It should also be noted that effort has been
made by the National Control Center to Black
Start the System using Kainji Power Plant. Kainji
and Jebba Power Plants remain available to
supply power as soon as the National grid is
restored.
“Finally, since Mainstream Energy Solutions
Limited took over Kainji and Jebba plants in
November, 2013, the company has not only
stabilised operations of the power plants but has
also increased generation capacity of the plants
despite various frustrations.”

SMH

and when will it be normal, I m fed up

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no light... no money

Don't tell me this is still Nigeria