Nationwide black-out imminent as transmission firms run out of gas

- The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says power blackout is imminent as gas to power the turbines is in short supply

- Between January 4 and 12, megawatts have reduced from 3, 959 to 3,751, an indication that there is already a shortfall in power

- An official of TCN says power generation has been dwindling due to the inability of generating firms to access gas

Nigerians will soon experience power blackout following drop in the nation’s megawatt from 3, 959 from January 4 to 3,751.90 on January 12.

Power transmission lines

According to Vanguard, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said the drop was due to dearth of gas, a development which will lead to more blackout across the country.

The company said it had put all the total output of all generation companies at 3,751.90 megawatts, adding that all the entire megawatts had been transferred to the 11 distribution companies across the country.

It reports that the power sector hits a peak generation of 4,959 megawatts as against 3,321 megawatts recorded in December.

It added that the sector recorded highest frequency of 51.27Hz; lowest frequency of 48.22 Hz; highest voltage recorded was 372KV while lowest voltage recorded was 300KV.

A TCN official, who would not want to be named, explained that power generation had been fluctuating following challenges of accessing gas by the firms.

He said the poor funding being experienced in the country has led to many power generation projects remaining unattended to. This, he said, is also due to shortage of gas to test run the turbines.

Vanguard also reports that a senior official attached to the Egbin power station, who also did not want to be named said the Egbin plant which had generated over 1000 megawatts had crashed to 375 due to gas shortage.

He said the power station generates and distributes between 250 megawatts and 300 megawatts due to shortage of gas.

He added that the power station with an installed capacity of 1,320 megawatts could generate over 1000 megawatts daily, noting that gas shortage had limited the capacity of power generation in the country.

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