Following last week’s collapse of the power grid twice within 24 hours, Nigeria’s federal government said on Saturday that it had begun the restoration of a number of the country’s power assets to recover 2,150 megawatts of electricity.
The Minister of Power, Mr. Abubakar Aliyu, in a statement he signed, stated that while the Okpai Power Plant had resumed electricity generation, contributing an average of 300 megawatts, other plants were being fixed to ameliorate to address the nationwide blackout.
Nigeria’s national power grid experienced another downtime on Tuesday, barely 24 hours after it witnessed a similar system collapse, throwing the nation into darkness.
The grid generation dropped massively from 3,000 megawatts earlier to 1,758 megawatts, leaving just 12 Generation Companies (Gencos) in operation, according to the hourly data supplied by the System Operations (SO), an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The national power grid had earlier collapsed on Monday, causing a nationwide outage after the loss of 1,100 megawatts from a 3,700MW peak generation earlier recorded.
Following the incident, Aliyu had summoned an emergency meeting to resolve all the outstanding issues with the stakeholders in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) as a result of the worsening power supply situation.
The Gencos under the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) had stated that the power supply situation in the country worsened because the generation companies were being owed over N1.6 trillion since 2013.
APGC’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Joy Ogaji, said the power generators were owed N1.644 trillion, adding that they had exhausted their borrowing capacities as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had allegedly asked Nigerian financial institutions to desist from lending money to them.
However, in an update, Aliyu stated that the federal government had taken several initiatives to recover considerable megawatts of power lost in the last few weeks as a result of a dip in water levels at the hydropower plants, vandalism, simultaneous plant maintenance, among others.
Aliyu pointed out that the update had become necessary following the emergency meeting convened by him on March 14, 2022, towards the restoration of the normal supply of electricity nationwide.
According to him, during the meeting, a framework for sustainable improvement of supply was developed.
The minister expressed pleasure that some challenges in the sector were being addressed.
“The Nigerian public may please recall that the national grid lost about 1,100MW generation capacity as a consequence of simultaneous disruptions in gas supply to the Okpai, Calabar and the Afam VI power plants.
“The available generation capacity was exacerbated by the ongoing water management regime at the Kainji, Jebba, and Shiroro power plants. The progress so far made includes, amongst many other initiatives, the following.
“The gas pipeline affected by acts of vandalism has been restored and the Okpai power plant has resumed power generation and currently contributing an average of 300mw.
“The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc has been directed to enter into fast-tracked negotiation with Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) on an interim energy sales agreement to bring the new Okpai II power plant on the grid, thereby contributing additional 400mw of generation capacity,” he added.
Furthermore, the minister stated that the ‘pigging’ of the gas pipeline supplying gas to the Odukpani Power Plant is scheduled for completion on March 21, 2022, thus ramping up generation by about 400mw.
To optimise the capacity utilisation of the power plants owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd. (NDPHC), Aliyu explained that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved a special gas pricing for emergency contracting of gas from the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Ltd (NGMC).
“We expect an on-grid improvement of about 800mw generation capacity from the NDPHC plants,” he said.
However, in the medium-term, he noted that the federal government has agreed with the Nigerian Gas and Power Investment Company (NGPIC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, on the framework for the overhaul of the Okoloma gas processing plant.
According to him, this new development will restore the full capacity of the 650MW Afam VI combined cycle power plant.
He stated that while the recent spate of system collapses was regrettable, it was a direct consequence of a snap on a 330kV transmission line.
Aliyu maintained that the mitigation measures to avoid such incidence of blackouts were being implemented through several interventions, including the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI)
“We wish to reassure all electricity consumers that all relevant agencies involved in the restoration of normality in power supply have been charged to act in the context of the emergency state of the industry.
“The federal ministry of power shall continue to periodically update the nation on the progress,” he stated.
The problematic power grid is a network of electrical transmission lines that connect several generating stations to loads spread across the country through generator stations, transmission lines, and towers.
Experts have said that the procurement and deployment of a spinning reserve, which can respond within 10 minutes to compensate for generation or transmission outages, could significantly reduce Nigeria’s power grid collapses.
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
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