The Nigerian Government through the Ministry of Power has explained what it is doing to restore normal electricity supply in the country.
Nigeria’s ministry of power made this announcement through its Twitter handle on March 19, 2022, listing out actions taken to restore power supply as well as detailing the causative factors for the outage.
The letter attached to the tweet was signed by the Minister of Power Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu where it also attached a formal press statement.
However, the minister listed the following actions that are now being taken.
- The gas pipeline affected by acts of vandalism has been restored and the Okpai power plant has resumed power generation and currently contributing an overage of 300MW.
- The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PA has been directed to enter into fast-track negotiation with NAOC on an interim energy sales agreement with a view to bringing the new Okpai II power plant on the grid thereby contributing an additional 400MW of generation capacity.
- The “pigging” of the gas pipeline supplying gas to the Odukponi power plant is scheduled for completion on March 21st, 2022 thus ramping up generation by about 4100MW.
- In order to optimise the capacity utilization of the power plants owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ed (NDPHC), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved a special gas pricing for emergency contracting of gas from the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Ltd. We expect an on-grid improvement of about 800MW generation capacity from the NDPHC plants.
- In the medium term, we have agreed with NGPIC ( a subsidiary of NNPC) on the framework for the overhaul of the Okolomo gas processing plant thereby restoring the full capacity of the 650MW Afom VI combined cycle power plant.
- While the recent spate of system collapse is regrettable, it was a direct consequence of a snap-on o 330kV transmission line. The mitigation measures for avoiding such incidence of blackouts ore being implemented through several interventions including the Presidential Power Initiative.
The government also insisted that it is assuring “all electricity consumers that all relevant agencies involved in the restoration of normality in power supply have been charged to act in the context of the emergency state of the industry_ The federal Ministry of Power shall continue to periodically update the nation on the progress.”
Optics
Nigerians have experienced a severe shortage in power supply over the last few weeks with many experiencing as little as one hour of power daily and some going without power for days.
- Whilst the letter attempts to give Nigerians a measure of comfort, it did not state clearly what time or day full normalcy will be restored.
- However, Nairametrics infers the likely target date is March 21st which is when it expects ramp-up to 4,000MW.
- According to available generation data, the country averages 4,000MW of power generation across the country which is in the range of normal power supply while 4,500MW is where power supply is above average.