Nigeria Lost 3,132mw Of Electricity In One Day – Osinbajo

Source: thewillnigeria.com

BEVERLY HILLS, April 25, (THEWILL) – The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that the country lost 99.6 per cent of its total electricity generation in one day, noting that the development led to the total blackout experienced in most parts of the country last weekend.

Osinbajo stated this in Abuja on Monday at the 9th conference of the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics/International Association for Energy Economics. His keynote address was read to participants at the event by his Senior Special Assistant on Power Privatisation, Mr. Chiedu Ugbo,

Revealing that 3,132 megawatts of the total electricity generated on Saturday, April 23, 2016 was lost, he explained that the loss was against a total grid of 3,144MW that was generated on Friday, according to data obtained from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

As a result, the country lost 99.62 per cent of the total energy it generated in just one day, a development that led to the collapse of the power grid as confirmed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria on Sunday.

While outlining some of the reasons for the huge loss in power generation, the Vice President stated that gas constraints, pipelines vandalism and inadequate infrastructure to transport available gas to the power plants were major challenges confronting Nigeria's power sector.

According to him, “There is also the challenge of inadequate infrastructure to transport the available gas to the power plants due to lack of investments in gas transport infrastructure, and vandalisation of existing infrastructure.

“On or about February 14, 2016, a portion of Shell's Forcados Export Terminal pipeline got ruptured just about the same time vandals destroyed a portion of the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System. These seriously affected gas supply to many power plants in the western axis like Ughelli, Egbin, Omotosho I, Olorunsogo I, Omotosho NIPP and Olorunsogo NIPP.

“The reported gas constraint to electricity generation as of April 23, 2016 alone was about 3,132MW.”