If you are wondering why power supply has been at an all time low in Nigeria then look no further. A Punch Newspaper article confirms that 18 power generation plants out of the 23 in the country are currently not generating electricity. As a result, the country has lost over 2,000 megawatts of electricity.
Gas supply has typically been the reason for epileptic supply and incessant power cuts but this time around the cause is labour induced. The government has blamed this on the industrial action embarked upon by oil and gas workers has compounded the problem.
“But this bad supply condition has worsened in the last few days. At present, 18 out of the 23 power plants in the country are unable to generate electricity due to shortage of gas supply to the thermal plants, with one of the hydro stations faced with water management issue.
“This has led to loss of over 2,000MW in the national grid. This situation is further compounded by the recent industrial action embarked upon by workers in the oil and gas industry, a development, which is taking a toll on other sectors of the economy.
“Gas supplies to the thermal plants have been further constrained by the industrial action of workers in the oil and gas industry.”
NERC said it had engaged the gas supply companies and its licensees in discussion two weeks ago on how to firm up gas supply in order to increase power supply. Power generation is said to be below 1,000MW by some analyst estimates whilst the official figure as at 23rd of May was just 1,536MW with just 1,348.23MW sent out. Nevertheless, this is by our estimates the lowest since 2013.