The power distribution companies in the country failed to distribute 8,244.05 megawatts of electricity in the first week of this month, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has said.
The total electricity distributed by the Discos during the week averaged 3,207.11MW, the TCN data showed.
The amount of electricity left unused by the power firms stood at 1,417.31MW on June 1 but fell to 362.43MW on June 2.
The Discos did not distribute 1,023.31MW on June 3, and 1,328.10MW on June 4.
The amount of unused electricity stood at 1,284.49MW on June 5 and rose to 1,359.45MW on June 6 and 1,468.96MW on June 7.
Five of the 11 Discos consumed more than the amount of the power allocated to them on June 2. Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Yola, Benin and Kano Discos accepted 55.96MW, 48.13MW, 11.99MW, 7.39MW and 0.28MW respectively in excess of grid allocation.
Abuja Disco also accepted excess load of 61.88MW on June 7, according to the TCN data.
The highest amount of power distributed in the week under review was 3,536.70MW on June 3, while the lowest (2,304.96M) was recorded the previous day.
The total power generation in the country plunged to 2,931.10MW as of 6am on Thursday from 3,718.3MW on Wednesday, data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator showed.
Eight power plants, including five built under the National Integrated Power Project, did not produce any megawatt of electricity as of 6am on Thursday.
“The power sector lost an estimated N2.14bn on June 17, 2020 due to constraints from insufficient gas supply, distribution and transmission infrastructure,” the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice President said on Thursday.
The Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies, Dr Joy Ogaji, said Gencos’ increased available generation capacity had not translated to corresponding increase in power supply to consumers.
“For the power sector to work in Nigeria, all tiers of the value chain must work optimally,” she said.
Ogaji added, “The grid is understood to have a ‘wheeling capacity’ of around 5,000MW. Therefore, generation above 5,000MW may either be lost or rejected.
“Available facts indicate that further investments in the generation sub-section is not optimal at this time, given that power currently generated does not get to the customer with high incidences of load rejection by the Discos due to capacity constraints and other commercial considerations.”
According to her, on the transmission level, there is a need to improve on grid stability.
