Following the poor electricity generation
which has allegedly sunk to 1,580 megawatts, between Tuesday and Wednesday,
Nigerians have lamented
the ugly development as the blackout across the country deepens.
Interactions with
some Nigerians on the vexed issue shows how they bemoan the sad
situation even as they blamed the current government for lacking the ideas to
resolve the lingering crisis.
Matthew Okpachi, an engineer
decried the situation saying, “it is sad that after all the promises made by
the current government, the power situation has worsened. We hardly see
electricity in our work place and it is even worse at home. The cost of running
the generator has become so high because of fuel scarcity.” He advised the
government to restructure the power sector so that it can become more
productive.
Another sad and angry Nigerian, Paul
Nnadi, a Quantity Surveyor, told our correspondent that “it is unfortunate that
even after the power sector is said to be privatized with the so called DISCOS
and GENCOS, power generation continues to be a major challenge to the country.
How can a nation so blessed be in this kind of mess? The whole thing is caused
by lack of visionary leadership and greed among the operators of the system.
Even the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Raji Fashola, wanted to impose
45% increase in Tariff on electricity without providing adequate supply to the
nation. This is unacceptable and Nigerians must rise and demand their rights to
the utility.”
Helen Obua, a hairdresser, also
lamented the situation saying, “we have not had electricity for the past one
week and I am really finding it very difficult to work as the fuel scarcity has
also compounded the problem because we can’t even get fuel to run the
generator.” She advised the government to take urgent steps to address the
crisis before further damage is done.
The power failures across the country
in the past few days was said to have been caused by a partial system
collapse that occurred and the drop in power generation according to
government was caused by the vandalism of pipelines that supply gas to the
power plants.
Data from the Nigeria Electricity
System Operator as well as information from senior officials of the different
electricity distribution companies confirmed that power generation plummeted
massively on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The officials noted that this resulted
in the reduction of the electricity load allocated to the DISCOS, stressing
that this was why many parts of the country had been recording blackouts in the
past few days.
Our correspondent gathered that
the partial system collapse that occurred on Tuesday happened at the Shiroro
Power Plant and reduced electricity generation to as low as 1,233.4MW from a
peak of 3,207.7MW recorded on the same day.
Data from NESO showed that by 9.48am on
Wednesday, power generation was 1,580.6MW, with the Ikeja Electric getting
237.09MW; Abuja, 181.77MW; Eko, 173.87MW; Benin, 142.25MW; and Enugu, 142.25MW. Others are Ibadan, 205.48MW; Jos,
86.93MW; Kano, 126.45MW; Kaduna, 126.45MW; Port Harcourt, 102.74MW; and Yola,
55.32MW.
An official from the Ministry of Power,
who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “Gas is vital for power generation
and most of the electricity being generated in Nigeria is produced by gas-fired
power plants. Both the ministers of power and petroleum have often called on
Nigerians to help safeguard the infrastructure, but we keep recording
explosions of gas pipelines.
“Currently, repairs are ongoing on some
of the ruptured pipelines and once they are completed, we believe generation
will pick up again.”
Last week, the acting Chief Executive
Officer of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Dr. Anthony
Akah, lamented the incidences of vandalism that led to the reduction in peak
power generation and supply from the national grid and called on Nigerians to
stop the unpatriotic act of pipeline vandalism.
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