Nigerian power generation rises above 4,000mw

Nigeria continues to battle with epileptic power supply.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, on Wednesday said that power generation has improved significantly to over 4,000 megawatts.

The Assistant General Manager of the Company, Dave Ifabiyi, disclosed this in an interview in Lagos.

Last week, Nigeria’s power generation depleted from a February peak value of 4, 350 megawatt to an abysmal 2,868.4 megawatts.

The power ministry had attributed the sharp drop in power supply to a general system failure.

The Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo, on April 11, said that the drop in power generation was due to ongoing maintenance works on installations across the country.

“Power generation, which dropped due to system collapse, has improved to over 4,000 mega watts as at Wednesday.

“We hope that before the week runs out the generation will reach a peak of 4,600 mega watts,” he said.

Consumers across the country have complained about the constant darkness that their homes and industries have been plunged into since February about the time President Goodluck Jonathan, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour, said Nigeria’s power supply had tremendously improved.

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Power, Patrick Ikhariale, also alleged that apart from Egbin Power Plc, all the power generating companies in the country were functioning at less than 40 per cent capacity.

But a minor relief might have come with the TCN announcement of an increase of about 1,160 megawatts.

Mr. Ifabiyi said that the power generation would reach its peak in Nigeria when all the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) were fully integrated into the national grid.

He attributed the recent increase in the generation of electricity to the privatisation of the sector by the Federal Government.

“Commitment to the power sector privatisation will result in more energy production for consumption,” he said.

Mr. Ifabiyi appealed to energy consumers to continue to partner with TCN in protecting electricity installations and forestalling vandalism.

He said that vandalism constituted a major setback to efforts to improve power supply.

Nigeria currently needs over 10,000 megawatts of electricity to guarantee stable electricity supply in the country.

(NAN)