Why electricity generation dropped in April

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has attributed the drop in power supply in April to challenges of gas supply.

In a statement issued on Saturday, TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, explained that there was an emergency maintenance by Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) on pipeline supplying gas to Egbin, Omotosho, Olorunsogo and Paras power stations.

The maintenance, which resulted in the total shutdown of the four power generating plants on April 25, was necessitated by leakage discovered on the Escravos-Lagos gas Pipeline System.

Mbah also said that prior to the incident, Omotosho National Integrated Power Plant (NIPP) and Olorunsogo NIPP were already out due to gas supply issues.

She, however, said NGC had begun works to repair the gas pipeline and restore normal supply to the affected power plants.

“Presently, repairs have been completed and the pipeline is currently being pressurized prior to resumption of gas supply to the affected power stations”, it said.

ALSO READ: Nigeria’s power grid under attack

TCN further noted that it has diverted about 312MW load from the Benin-Egbin 330kV transmission line which tripped at 23.14hours on Tuesday, 23rd April, 2019, to Omotosho –Ikeja West and Ayede-Ikeja 330kV transmission lines, due to on-going repair works on the Benin-Egbin 330kV transmission line.

“The tripping was caused by a line cut between Ofofu and Okada Towns, however TCN engineers are making concerted efforts to complete repair work on the transmission line, despite the very difficult terrain at that location.

“Due to the diversion of the load from this line to the two transmission lines equally feeding Lagos axis, load shedding in Lagos axis was minimised to about 280MW at the first instance. load shedding increased considerably.

“TCN regrets inconveniences and wish to assure Nigerians that power supply would return to normal as soon as normal gas supply is restored to the affected power stations and transmission repair work is completed”, the statement added.