Power
Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, mines and housing, and electricity distribution companies bicker over the later’s capacity to wheel out electricity allocated to them
By Anayo Ezugwu
The electricity distribution companies, Discos, and Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, have renewed their verbal war with the former describing the later’s statements on distribution capacity as misleading. The Discos said they have capacity to take and distribute 6,288.96 megawatts of electricity, refuting the minister’s claim that they can only handle 5,000mw.
According to them, the capacity of Discos to distribute about 6,300mw was confirmed in a study conducted by the country’s power System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN. While Fashola at a recent power sector stakeholders’ meeting, stated that power generation in the country had increased to 7,000mw and that distributors could only take about 5,000mw, leaving 2,000mw stranded.
“We have reached a 7,000MW generation capacity and have a 5,000MW distribution capacity. We had met with Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Discos, and Gencos (generation companies) on how to implement the Eligible Customer Policy and increase connectivity to the 2,000MW that is available,” the minister said.
But the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, ANED, in Abuja, on Wednesday, August 22, said their capacity to distribute power was way beyond the minister’s claim, but stressed that the capacity was subject to the stability of the country’s transmission grid.
The power firms stated in a document signed by Sunday Oduntan, executive director, ANED, that, “The capacity to wheel any level of energy to be distributed by the Discos is subject to the stability and availability of the transmission grid. Indeed, a Disco experienced, over a six-month period, 2,000 recorded instances of transmission interface interruptions. These interruptions are replicated across all the Discos. The Discos have a capacity to off-take 6,288.96mw, a determination that was made by the TCN’s System Operator, in a load stress study that was conducted in 2015.”
The power firms also stated that the TCN’s operationally tested capacity to transmit the energy that it received from power generation companies had remained at 5,300mw. “To date, the TCN has only on a one-time basis evacuated or transmitted peak energy of 4,577mw (February 2nd, 2016). The TCN’s capacity to transmit energy daily hovers within a range of 3,500 to 4,000mw, with a predominance of transmission at the lower end of the range,” ANED said.
The association also argued that no 2,000mw of electricity was stranded as a result of distribution network limitations. “The sector has an estimated available capacity of 7,000MW, of which, on a daily basis, 2,000mw remains constrained by lack of gas, transmission line frequency challenges and hydro constraints.”
But Ndidi Mbah, general manager, Public Affairs, TCN, however, insisted that the current inadequacies in the distribution networks were limiting the amount of power delivered to end users on a daily basis, adding that there was a need for significant investment in the distribution network.
“As of December 2017, the TCN’s capacity stood at 7,124mw and since then, the company has installed several transformers, re-conducted transmission lines, rehabilitated as well as built new substations across the country.”
As the debate over the capacity of the Discos continues, new data from the advisory power team in the office of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has shown that the power sector lost N324.3 billion in eight months due to gas constraints and poor distribution network.
According to the latest power generation report, 3,700mw of electricity could not be generated on August 20, due to unavailability of gas, poor transmission and distribution network, and high frequency. As a result, the sector lost N1.786 billion same day.
A report by the advisory power team in June showed that the sector lost N201billion revenue in six months — from January 1 and June 5. The data indicated that a total of N201,298,000,000 loss was recorded due to repeated shortfalls in gas supply to power generation companies, Gencos, the inability of the TCN to effectively transport electricity from Gencos and operational limitations of Discos.
– Aug. 24, 2018 @ 18:55 GMT |
Tags: Discos at War over Distribution Capacity Fashola
