BREAKING NEWS, Featured, Power
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New figures from the Transmission Company of Nigeria show electricity generation in the country dropped 30 percent in the second quarter of 2016 while hydro power stations made the highest contribution to the national grid in June
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Sep 19, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE power sector in Nigeria recorded a drop of 30.01 percent in the second quarter of 2016 due to poor generation of electricity caused by militants’ attacks of gas pipelines in the Niger Delta. A new report from the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, said the attacks led to the shutdown of pipelines and the shut-in of gas that powered thermal plants between last April and June.
The report released by TCN on its website on Thursday, September 8, stated that 2,046,821,132.72 kilowatts-hour (kwh) of electricity was generated in April with average daily output of 68,227,371.09 kwh. In May, grid output was 1,765,782,918.34 kwh with average daily production at 56,960739.30 kwh while in June production was 1,426,183,518.94 kwh and daily output was 47,539,450.63 kwh.
The data showed that Egbin Power Station made the highest contribution to the national grid with 15.81 per cent, Shell’s Afam VI Power Station came second with 13.81 per cent and Geregu Power station provided the least at 0.46 percent. However, Afam I-V, Gbarain, AES, Rivers IPP and Omoku Power Stations operated at zero levels. A new Independent Power Plant, Paras Energy, contributed 0.94 percent. Paras Energy, along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, has a bilateral Power Purchase Agreement, PPA, with Eko Electricity Distribution Company to supply its generated electricity.
Generation output from the thermal power stations, especially those outside the Niger Delta, continued to be adversely affected by pipeline vandalism, the report said. In May, energy dipped by as much as 13.73 percent compared to April’s output. Shell’s Afam VI Power station beat Egbin Power Station by making the highest contribution to the grid with 17.32 percent.
Egbin came second with 15.63 percent. The new entrant, Gbarain Power Station (one of the NIPP plants constructed by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company), contributed the least with 0.38 percent while Olorunsogo Power Station, which contributed 0.72 percent in April, made no contribution. Total generation went down by 19.23 percent in June compared with energy generated in May. However, for the first time, Jebba Hydro Power Station contributed the highest energy into the grid with 15.57 percent.
Egbin came second with 14.58 percent, while another hydro station, Kanji power station, came third with 14.58 percent. Omoku power Station resumed production with the contribution of 0.18 percent. Throughout the second quarter, AES Power Station, Rivers IPP, and Afam 1-V did not produce any power. The hydro power stations steadily improved their contributions to the grid in the second quarter from 21.78 percent in April to 23.10 percent in May and 32.46 per cent in June.
The hydro power stations made the highest contribution in June. Thermal plants (legacy stations) experienced a marginal rise from 30.71 percent in April to 31.66 percent in May and dropped to 28.77 percent in June. The National Integrated Power Plants, NIPP, produced 20.72 percent in April, went down to 17.33 percent in May and dropped marginally to 17.06 percent in June.
The most significant difference in contribution during this period under review was in the independent power plant, IPP, group. In April, the group contribution was 26.80 percent and it went up marginally to 27.91 percent in May and dropped drastically to 21.72 percent in June. During the quarter, the national grid witnessed 14 total system collapses and four incidents of partial system collapse.
“In April, the grid witnessed three instances of total system collapses and no incidence of partial system collapse but in May, the grid witnessed six instances of total system collapses and one incident of partial system collapse while in June the grid witnessed five instances of total system collapses and three incidents of partial system collapse. The incidents of total and partial collapses occurred, especially due to generation limitations,” TCN said.
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