Public power supply in the country hit a peak capacity of 4,237 megawatts on Monday, excluding spinning reserves. This is the highest power output ever generated in Nigeria to date.

Minister of Power, Bart Nnaji, stated this on Tuesday while briefing officials of his ministry.

He attributed the sharp increase to gas availability and praised the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, for delivering on the promise to supply gas to the thermal plants.

“Gas is coming up gradually and when fully stabilised, we can easily hit 5,000 megawatts,” he said.

Nnaji also said that although water levels have also improved at the dams, hydro power plant managers at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro are operating a management system designed to ensure that there is water for power all year round.

“We can have more (power) if we decide to use what is available at Shiroro, for example, but we do not want to do that,” he said.

The minister said he was also pleased that the transmission backbone has been able to wheel the power produced effortlessly.

When President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office in May 2010, the quantum of power generated in Nigeria was about 2,800 megawatts.

The figure spiked by1,000 megawatts within one year, mostly through recoveries from existing plant capacities. By January 2012, the generation capacity peaked to about 4,100 megawatts.

The minister had in April assured that there would be considerable improvement in power supply from the end of July 2012 because of the scheduled increase in natural gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and in the volume of water at the lakes in the nation’s three hydro power stations at Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba.

The Federal Government has promised to step up efforts to improve gas supply to the power sector by putting in place some infrastructure that would enhanced sustainable power generation in the country.

The nation’s gas agenda is robust. It puts gas-to-power at the core, but also envisions an aggressive gas based industrial growth. This in turn will drive further growth of power demand.

About 3bcf/d targeted at power sector with existing Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) plants being cardinal base load consumers of the gas.

source:BUSINESSDAY

GEJ good one. There is still room for improvement. Keep up the good work.