Power generation hit 4,237MW on Monday — Nnaji

Power generation hit a peak capacity of 4,237 megawatts on Monday, excluding spinning reserves.

Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, described the figure as the highest power output ever generated and supplied in Nigeria to date.

Nnaji, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Power, announced the development to his ministry's directors on Tuesday.

He attributed the sharp increase to gas availability and praised the Nigeria Gas Company and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, for delivering on the promise to supply gas to the thermal plants.

“Gas is coming up gradually and when fully stabilised, we can easily hit 5,000MW,” he said.

Nnaji also said that although water levels had also improved at the dams, hydro power plant managers at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro were operating a management system designed to ensure that there is water for power all year round.

“We can have more (power) if we decide to use what is available at Shiroro, for example, but we do not want to do that,” he said.

The minister said he was also pleased that the transmission backbone had been able to wheel the power produced effortlessly.

When President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office in May, 2010, the quantum of power generated in Nigeria was about 2,800MW.

The figure spiked by 1,000MW within one year, mostly through recoveries from existing plant capacities. By January 2012, the generation capacity peaked to about 4,100MW.

The minister had in April promised that there would be considerable improvement in power supply from the end of July 2012 because of the scheduled increase in natural gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and in the volume of water at the lakes in the nation's three hydro power stations at Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba.