‘N4.6 billion lost to power sector system collapse in three days’

Electricity

The system collapse experienced in the power sector between January 2 and 3, 2018 has cost the Federal Government more than N4.6billion revenue.

Also, a total of 9,162.7 megawatts (MW) of power were not generated as a result of non-supply of gas to power generation companies (Gencos) from January 2 to 4 2018 due to the system collapse.

The Guardian learnt these from analysis of statistics from the Advisory Power Team in the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

A fire incident that affected the Escravos-Lagos pipeline system close to Okada, Edo State, resulted to the shutdown of the pipeline supplying gas to Egbin power plant that produces 1,320MW; Olorunsogo NIPP, 676MW; Olorunsogo, 338MW; Omotosho NIPP, 450MW; Omotosho, 338 MW; and Paras, 60MW on January 2, 2018.

The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing had explained that the sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from these stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off.

A breakdown of the statistics showed that on January 4, 2018, the average power sent out was 3,090MWh/hour, 3133MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas as a result of which the power sector lost an estimated N1,576,000,000.

On January 3, the average power sent out was 2,596MWh/hour, 3354.3MW was not generated and consequently the power sector lost an estimated N1,682,000,000. Also, on January 2, the average power sent out was 3,475MWh/hour. The statistics indicated that gas constraint caused non-production of 2675.4MW, while line constraint caused a shortfall of 58MW and the power sector lost an estimated N1,312,000,000.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Udu Ughamadu, explained that to put out the fire, it required complete shutdown of the  Escravos-Lagos Pipeline (ELP).

The task affected gas supply to customers in Ondo, Ogun and Lagos states.