Our correspondent gathered on Tuesday that morning peak generation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria and independent power companies, dropped to 2,675MW, due to gas constraints, from an average of 3,000MW a few days‘ ago.
The Lagos Thermal Station, Egbin and AES, were limited to generating 500MW, down from 600MW as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited was doing some work on its gas supply lines, which led to reduction in gas supply to power stations.
Jebba Hydro Power Station generated 430MW, Kainji did 409MW and Shiroro did 299MW.
Delta power station supplied 244MW, while Sapele power station did nothing because of no gas supply, Afam IV generated 49MW while Shell‘s Afam VI generated 441MW.Okpai power plant did 218MW, Omotosho power station generated 35.5MW, Omoku generated 31.4MW while Olorunsogo generated nothing.
A source in PHCN said, ”Drop in generation is due to sharp reduction in gas supply to our thermal stations.
Meanwhile, the task before the Power Holding Company and independent power projects as well as the Nigeria Gas Company, still remains getting enough gas to run the thermal plants.
Investigations show that should enough gas be available, the nation can still achieve about 5,000MW by December, just a thousand below the government target.
But the situation on the ground points to the fact that there would not just be enough gas to enable generation of more than 4,000MW.
In the first instance, since the beginning of the year, the gas – run power stations have been battling with the problem of inadequate or no gas supply and the situation has just slightly improved based on the amnesty granted militants by the Federal Government.
However, even though the Minister of Power, Dr. Lanre Babalola, said the government and privately-owned power stations would need 1.2 billion standard cubic feet per day to achieve the target, indications are that the government-owned power stations are still having a serious gas supply shortfall.
Sources close to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, told our correspondent that the PHCN run thermal stations still have a gas supply shortfall of over 500 million standard cubic feet per day, few weeks to the expiration of the deadline.
Posted: at | |