TheCable

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the country’s power generation improved slightly to 3,528.90 megawatts on February 1 from 2,662 megawatts on January 22.

This figure was Wednesday published on the website of the Nigerian electricity system operator, a sub-agency of the TCN, in its daily forecast on power generation.

“The slight increase in generation is due to slightly increased gas supply to some generating companies (GENCOs) to boost operations.

“The total output of 3,528.90 megawatts from all the GENCOs on Wednesday has been transferred to the 11 distribution companies across the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigerian electricity supply industry (NESI) operational report said the power sector dropped to 2,662.20 megawatts on January 22 because of low water levels and the challenge of accessing gas by GENCOs.

The sector recorded highest system frequency of 51.50Hz and lowest system frequency of 48.80 Hz, while the highest and the lowest voltage recorded on Wednesday were 372KV and 300KV, respectively.

A top official of Egbin power station was quoted as saying that due to the slight increase in gas supply, the station now generates 400 megawatts as against the previous 150 megawatts — although the station has a capacity of 1,320 megawatts.

The official appealed for more gas supply to the station, so that it could fire all its five units.

He said the GENCOs were being owed a huge amount of money by the federal government, which posed a serious challenge to their operations.

“Gas to power should not be politicised. Government should take issues of power very serious and find lasting solution to the lingering issues. The 400 megawatts Egbin generated was wheeled out to the national grid at 6.00 am on Wednesday,’’ he said.