Nigeria’s electricity generation increases by 114.7MW
Power Plant
Nigeria’s electricity generation has increased by 114.7megawatts (MW) from 3,060.35 MW it recorded two weeks ago to 3,175.05MW as at 19th April 2015, according to data from the Federal Ministry of Power and Presidential Task Force on Power.
This is still below the peak generation level of 4,517.6MW achieved three years ago.
The country’s power generation capacity currently stands at 6,000 MWs and is to the expected to grow to 40,000 MW by 2020.
According to the report, the country’s peak generation stands at 3,496.2MW; Peak Demand forecast, 12,899.99MW; and Energy sent out, 3,104.50.
Giving reason for the country’s inability to achieve regular electricity, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, said that the Federal Government has the capacity to generate 5,500MW of electricity to Nigerians regularly if there was adequate gas supply.
According to him, the benefits of the power projects were denied the citizens by the activities of pipeline vandals
“With regard to our generation today, I would like to make a differentiation between installed capacity and available capacity.
“Because of the projects that have commissioned, we have a capacity now to deliver minimum of 5,500mw with gas because when I talk about availability, we are also talking about gas.
“The problem today is still vandalism. Whether it is the Eastern or Western axis, we keep suffering vandalism and it happened almost predictably every two weeks.
“Once they hit the Western axis, the Excravos – Lagos pipeline, the only reason they hit it is apparently for sabotage because you can’t collect the gas, you can’t sell the gas or store the gas.
he said the government repaired pipelines with N120 million every month.
The minister said vandalisation had made the country lose about 1,600 megawatts of electricity at a particular time.
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3 Comments
Rubbish – I have not have light for 4 staright days, what nonsense are thay talking about????
This should be the first minister that should be removed. how can you for the past 4 years continue to say vandals are the reason for low power production. there are two areas that get vandalized, why hasn’t it being protected. what are the alternate gas supply being worked on. what is wrong with putting this gas on trailers to be delivered to power generation companies. those power generation should also have the ability to store this gas for 3 months incase of vandals.
What Nigeria needs is a series of mid size/large coal based power plants for managing base load. These can be built for using coal inside Nigeria if mining is taken up fast or imported coal from countries like Mozambique,Tanzania or SA. A number of 300-500MW coal based plants can be built in 3-4 years and international developers can come in through competitive bids. Along with this, they can also be tasked to build 400kv dedicated transmission lines to consumption centers like Lagos and distributed through discoms.Projects can be located along the ports in Nigeria or at pit heads.This may give Nigeria long term energy security.Inspite of down trends in gas prices internationally, Nigerian gas tends to go up to US$ 7.50 per mmbtu for commercial power generation and the cost economics at this gas price is not commercially feasible.Hence gas can be exported to earn foreign exchange perhaps for buying cheaper coal.This will leave still a vast part of Nigeria -perhaps in North not fed by power.While transmission networks in these areas will take a long time, one can look at distributed generation using gas, biomass for building smaller projects for supplying dedicated communities.In my few visits to such areas I find agriculture is the biggest sufferer. Plenty of land , lot of ground water at low levels, yet no electricity to draw water to feed cash /food crops.Why not LPG based/solar panel mounted 5/10HP engines that can also double up to generate electricity in the nights. Solar plants with gas back up can also serve this market. This will revolutionise rural Nigeria- provide food and generate a lot of employment.Perhaps schools can be run with this distributed generation. In my view, Nigeria lacks a thriving middle class which can cushion the shocks between rich and the poor. This can be developed by providing more electricity and education.If there is a will there is a way.
We will review and take appropriate action.