When they were last tested in July 2021, the facilities’ combined capacity had decreased from 13,461 megawatts to 4,022MW.
The decrease in electricity production follows the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s promise to start providing Nigerians with at least 5000MW of electricity on July 1.
Sanusi Garba, the chairman of NERC, recently briefed newsmen in Lagos that Discos, Gencos, and TCN had signed a contract to deliver 5000MW of electricity. Although this is yet to be seen.
The Head of Corporate Communications, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, Henrietta Ighomrore, told The PUNCH in an interview that relevant stakeholders who were in a meeting late last week had made moves to ensure that the PPAs between the trading company and players in the power sector were enforced.
She said: “We are not about signing a new PPA because each of the companies has an existing contract. But what is ongoing as I speak is that we are all in a meeting on partial reactivation of the PPA
“The discussion is ongoing right now on the partial activation of the PPA contract. The outcome is going to be for the good of Nigeria”
A metering expert, Sesan Okunade, also told the publication that the problem with the country’s electricity was not the generation but the distribution.
He said: “We have generated more than this before which we sold to neighbouring countries. Our problem is transmission, and the Disco whose infrastructure is not capable of withholding the supply if more power is transmitted from the Gencos. Some of the reasons for system collapse is the excess megawatts not being collected by Discos due the technical and commercial loss,”
He said NERC should mandate the Discos to adopt a good connection policy devoid of the cobweb currently in the network.
This, according to him, will ensure energy is well accounted for, adding that it will assist in knowing if more is to be transmitted to such Discos.
“Good connection policy and investment in transformers to replace the obsolete ones will assist in what is being generated to be effectively received by Discos”, he added.
