The nation’s electricity woes worsened on
Tuesday as two additional power generating
plants were shut down, bringing the total
number of plants not generating any
megawatts of electricity to 10.
The two shut plants are Shiroro Power Station
in Niger State and Sapele II in Delta State,
industry data obtained by our correspondent
showed.
Shiroro, whose capacity was put at 600MW, was
said to have seen its unit 411G1 tripped on
emergency shutdown on the 86ES lockout
relay; units 411G2 and 3 out for under water
repair work; and unit 411G4 out on
maintenance.
The Sapele II, built under the National
Integrated Power Project, with its capacity put
at 225MW, has four units. The GT1 was shut
down for maintenance, GT3 out due to work by
the Nigerian Gas Company at the gas station,
while the GT2 and 4 units are out as a result of
gas constraints.
Total national power generation stood at
2,774.2MW on Tuesday, down from 3,657.5MW
on March 31. Generation from Egbin, the
nation’s biggest power station, was limited to
415MW due to gas constraints, down from
1,085MW on March 15.
Shell’s Afam VI power plant generated the
highest megawatts of electricity at 418MW as of
6am, the data showed.
The slide in power generation has worsened the
blackout being experienced in many parts of
the country as many consumers complained of
outages lasting for hours on end.
The PUNCH had on Friday reported exclusively
that eight of the nation’s power plants were
completely idle on Thursday, with signicant
reduction in generation from others, including
Egbin, which is located in Lagos.
The plants, which did not generate any
megawatts of electricity included Sapele, Delta
State, whose installed capacity was put at
240MW; Olorunsogo II in Ogun State, with a
capacity of 625MW; Rivers IPP (180MW) and
Trans-Amadi (75MW), both in Rivers State.
Others were Geregu I in Kogi; Afam IV & V in
Rivers, and A.E.S and Asco, whose installed
capacity were not given.
Sapele’s units were said to be shut due to gas
constraints, tripping, maintenance and major
overhaul, among other reasons.
The Rivers IPP’s unit GT1 was out due to gas
constraints, while Trans-Amadi’s GT1 and 4
units were out due to line constraints; GT2 due
to gas constraints and GT3 undergoing
maintenance.
According to the data, there was no
communication on A.E.S, while Asco’s unit GT1
was out due to a re outbreak. Olorunsogo’s
units GT1 to 4 and ST2 were shut due to gas
constraints, and ST1 for maintenance.
Geregu’s three units were shut due to outage
and to enable them to undergo a major
overhaul and maintenance, while a unit of
Afam IV & V had been de-commissioned and
scrapped; four were out due to blade failure and
two due to burnt generator transformer, among
others.