Nigeria’s power generation declines to 10-month low, says presidential task force

The peak generation reduced from 4, 517.6 MW in December 2012 to 3,781.80MW.

Nigeria’s electricity generation capacity has declined from the peak generation level of about 4,517.6 mega watts (MW) recorded last December, 2012 to about 3,781.80 MW in October, according to the power generation fact sheet of the Presidential Task Force on Power as at October 20.

The electricity generation report showed that though the country’s peak demand level forecast was 12,800 MW of electricity, energy generation capacity stood at about 3,559.46 MW hour per hour (MWH/H), while actual electricity sent out into the national grid was 3,487.85 MWH/H.

The Chairman, Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, Atedo Peterside, said at the handing over of the newly privatized successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to their new owners that the nine former PHCN generation companies (including Omotosho and Olorunsogo) only had available capacity of 2,692 MW as at September 10, as against a total installed capacity of 6,976.40 MW.

But, in spite of the poor generation capacity, President Goodluck Jonathan remained optimistic that Nigerians would soon smile, as his administration has done enough, including the investment of about $3 billion (N480 billion) in the sector, to raise power supply to a reasonably stable level by the middle of 2014.

The President said the Federal Government was targeting the generation of about 4,700MW from 10 National Integrated Power Projects, NIPPs, to be completed and handed over to the private sector operators before the end of the first quarter of 2014.

However, the NCP Chairman warned that if the problems of weak transmission and gas constraints were not resolved, realizing the country’s aspiration of steady power supply after the conclusion of the privatization exercise, may be constrained.

“Unless Nigeria’s power transmission weakness is dealt with by 2014, there will be a crisis when the ten National Integrated Power Plants, NIPP, come on stream,” Mr. Peterside said. “Transmission is the life-blood of this entire electricity system and it is also potentially the weakest link at present.”

Mr. Peterside identified gas supply and transportation as the other weak link in the country’s power generation and supply system, particularly as Nigeria is predominantly reliant on gas-fired power plants.