The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has revealed that it has been forced to shut down the Alaoji Power Plant in Abia State following the attack on the plant’s gas supply pipeline belonging to TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited by vandals.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued an signed by NDPHC’s Head of Communication and Public Relations, Mr Emmanuel Ojor, on Monday in Abuja.
Ojor in the statement said that said TotalEnergies had in a letter written to it, declared a force majeure on gas supply to Alaoji, resulting from its NOPL Line vandalisation at KP41 Alaoma Etche Cluster on January 7, 2022.
What the NDPHC Spokesman is saying in the statement
Ojor explained that the Line Block Valve at KP38 was closed to isolate the sabotage point and depressurisation of the line, a situation that is expected to affect gas supply to Alaoji Power Plant until further notice.
The NDPHC, due to this development, quoted TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited to have stated that, “Gas supply to Alaoji Power Plant was suspended due to this unfortunate event.”
The statement reads, “Preliminary investigation to determine the extent of the damage was ongoing, and repair works shall commence as soon as feasible.’’
The power company, while regretting the shutdown of the plant, had in the statement noted that the Omotosho National Independent Power Project (NIPP) was shut down last month due to system wide curtailment of all gas shippers (gas producers/off takers) by the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), to forestall the imminent collapse of the gas grid.
NGC had said at the time that the Trans-Forcardos Pipeline (TFP), belonging to NGC was breached on December 17, 2021.
The statement also said, ‘’That breach led to the deferment of about 250mmscfd of gas from the pipeline network, a situation that brought the network pressure to abysmal levels, thereby triggering an emergency.
The curtailment impacted operations of NDPHC negatively with Omotosho NIPP being shut down and gas supply to Geregu NIPP and Ihovbor NIPP also limited, thus leading to part load or low generation from these available power plants.’’
The NDPHC, however, assured all customers under its network that the Alaoji Power Plant and others would resume power generation as soon as gas supply was restored.
Bottomline
The shutdown of the power plant will ultimately lead to drop in power generation and supply across the country.
The power sector has been grappling with epileptic power supply and electricity load reduction to the electricity distribution companies due to disruptions in power generation and transmission.
