ELECTRICITY generation has increased to 4,232.6 megawatts from the 3,500 MW recorded in the last two months, according to the daily electricity generation report from the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.

According to the operational report from the TCN on Wednesday, March 22, this can be regarded as significant improvement although still far below the country’s peak demand forecast of 19,100MW.

The federal government’s efforts to fix the electricity crisis in Nigeria have not yielded significant result due to gas pipeline vandalism and many homes and businesses are still experiencing constant blackout.

According to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI,  the power sector lost an estimated N1.2 billion on March 20, due to gas constraints. Specifically, the agency put power output loss to gas constraints at 2,105MW.

It stated: “The power sector is plagued with structural issues in all key areas – generation, gas supply, transmission and distribution. The operational capacity of the country’s power plants is less than a third of their installed capacity.

“Chronic vandalism has crippled oil and gas pipelines, creating gas shortages at power plants. Underinvestment in maintenance and infrastructure has constrained our transmission grid. Finally, high collection and commercial losses have impacted the financial viability of the privatised distribution companies.”

—  Apr 3, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT

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