TheCable

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the power sector has recorded an all-time 5,377 megawatts (MW) peak generation.

In a statement, the electricity transmission agency said the new record was achieved on August 1.

This surpasses the previous 5,375MW recorded on the national grid in 2019, which shows an increase of 2.8MW.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that it has recorded an enhanced all time peak generation of 5,377.8 MW on 01/08/2020 at 21:30hrs,” the TCN said.

“The new peak, which surpasses the previous one recorded on 07/02/2019 by 2.8MW, was successfully transmitted to distribution load centres nationwide.”

Data from the country’s electricity system operator puts the grid generation installed capacity at 12,954MW, while the available generation capacity is 7,652MW.

The transmission wheeling capacity is put at 8,100MW. However, due to constraints, the TCN cannot wheel more than 6,000MW, as an overload might lead to system collapse since the power distribution companies (DisC0s) also do not have the capacity to take more than 5,000MW.

According to the latest quarterly report of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the regulator said it is working to address the DisCo-TCN interface bottlenecks to free up part of the stranded generation capacity
by addressing the technical constraints inhibiting the flow of energy.