Nationwide blackout looms, as power generation falls below 4,000mw

BY SULE TAHIR

Nationwide power blackout looms as power generation in the country has drastically dropped below the 4,000 megawatts at the weekend leaving customers across the country with limited electricity supply.

Checks on data provided by the National System Operator, NSO, an independent arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, showed that only 18 of the 25 power plants in the country supplied power to the national grid.

Further checks showed that generation as of 12 noon yesterday was 3,518.7MW, indicating a drop of 18.6 per cent, compared to the average generation of 4,324.1MW recorded last Friday.

The biggest drop by a single power plant was Azura-Edo IPP which recorded 256MW from the 403.18MW recorded last week. Checks on the Azura-Edo website showed that two of its three-generation units were on the grid.
The biggest suppliers to the grid were Egbin Power (529MW), Delta Power (502MW) and Kainji Hydro (426MW).

Checks on data made available to this medium by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, also indicated that the amount owed to the generation companies in 2022 was N202.6 billion.

According to NBET, GenCos were owed another N24.22 billion for power supplied to the grid in the month of January 2023.