Power generation declined nationwide by 45.4 percent to 2,777.04 Megawatts, MW, yesterday after a peak generation of 5,040.72MW recorded at the national grid on Tuesday.
Data obtained by Vanguard from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, NESO, a semi autonomous unit of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, indicated that yesterday’s peak generation also showed a decline to 4,370.14 MW around mid-day before plunging further to 2,777.04MW late in the evening.
The development indicates that there has been little or no improvement in the power value chain despite the recent review of Band A power consumers’ billing.
Many industry stakeholders have attributed the situation to inadequate supply of gas to the thermal stations and the poor state of transmission lines.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu had, in a statement, through his media aide, Bolaji Tunji, said: “The national grid on Monday hit a high of 5,313MW, a record high in the last three years.”
But contrary to this claim, Vanguard findings showed that it closed at 3,940.49MW mid-night Monday, with the highest generation for the day at 4,805.59MW recorded at 8:00pm.
At the backdrop of the weak power situation, Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sanusi Garba, had charged Investors and owners of Distribution Companies, DISCOs in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry to come up with solutions to fix the sector rather than making excuses.
Speaking during NERC’s meeting with Investors/Owners of DISCOs, Garba assured them of the Commission’s support, urging them to come up with transformational ideas and suggestions on possible regulatory interventions to facilitate rapid positive changes in the sector.
Speaking on expectation from both regulators and operators, Adetayo Adegbemle, Executive Director and convener of Power Up Nigeria, said there was need for generation to meet the market demand.
He said, “Then, we need to price electricity appropriately. We need to remove subsidy on electricity tariff and look at getting institutional financing or any other creative means for metering.
“We should stop treating electricity like national cake that must get to everyone, we need to liberalise the sector totally so we can have quick electricity coverage for the nation.”
Adegbemle said an energy-poor nation is a poor country. He stated that the only way forward was to appropriately price electricity, remove subsidy, and encourage some liberalism so that many parts of the country could develop in sync.
SOURCE: VANGUARD
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