Generated Power in Nigeria Falls to 1327MW, May Worsen
Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali
Following the drastic and unprecedented drop of the total generated power in Nigeria, the city of Lagos and its neighbours were thrown into darkness as total outage seized the city in what managers of power in the state referred to as ‘uncontrollable shutdown’.
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Coincidentally and even more challenging is the fact that Nigeria is at present experiencing the scarcity of petroleum products resulting ultimately into total darkness for many citizens as there are no generators to fall back to since fuel to run the machines are still scarce and difficult to find.
According to the General Manager of the Ikeja West Power Transmitting station Engr. Abayomi Oyewole, who spoke to Xclusive‘s Senami Adaba on the power outage, the situation is totally beyond control right now “what do we do with 1327Megawatts? How do we share it? For more than 170million consumers? It is possible in the long run to manage what we have but note that things like this will always happen.”
Speaking further, Oyewole also revealed that at present there is also shortage of gas to fuel the power transformers at the major stations and substations. “Even here as you can see, fuel scarcity has affected us. We use petroleum products too.”
He also revealed to Xclusive Magazine that despite the drastic fall of power supply in the nation, Nigeria still supplies power to a couple of neighbouring countries of which Ghana is number one!
“It’s like giving you what I don’t have, won’t I suffer?” He queried.
Engineer Kelvin Chinweike of the Ogba substation also shared his opinion and some facts with Xclusive Magazine. In our chat with him, we gathered that the situation is quite frightening even to Engineers in the power control rooms.
“You talk of 1327megawatts? What if I scare you that we don’t even have up to that? Generation is below what can feed power stations not to talk of consumers,” he slammed.
According to Kelvin, power generation supply is technically below 1000megawatts!
And to add fuel to the burning fire, the young engineer revealed that the scarcity of petroleum products is also one of the determining factors as regards the present outage
“We do not have gas to power the Generating plants or turbines,” he revealed.
When asked how long the situation would last Engr. Kelvin was sceptical but predicted that if the situation rolls into Monday or Tuesday without a solution there would be total crisis at the stations and substations.
Meanwhile, speaking on the power outage on Friday, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, confirmed that power generation had dropped drastically to 1327MW and would continue to drop unless a miracle happens.
He disclosed this to State House correspondents after joining the Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo, to brief Vice President Namadi Sambo on the current power problem in the country.
Igali explained that prior to the current constraints the nation had been encountering lately, the government had been generating 4,800MW at the beginning of the year with a potential to get up to 6,000MW based on the available gas and hydro stations.
He said apart from the nefarious activities of vandals, the industrial action by the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria had led to a further reduction of the amount of gas available to most of the nation’s power plants, especially in the western axis.
“The overall effect is that power supply, which had started picking up steadily since the beginning of the week, following repairs of various vandalised portions of the ELP Line and the Trans-Forcados Gas Pipelines, has fallen to an all-time-unprecedented low of 1,327MW as of 1pm, Friday, May 22, 2015.
“This situation could get worse if the strike (action) continues.”
After the intense negotiations involving the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the NNPC and the labour unions, the strike was called off yesterday, with the promise to begin distribution in six hours same yesterday.
- For reaction to this article, call any of these hotlines: +353877911985 (Ireland); 07069513320 (Nigeria). Or leave a comment below
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