One of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘super ministers’ – Babatunde Raji Fashola appearing to be faltering in his bid to
revamp the ailing power sector in Nigeria.
The system collapse recorded on May 8, 2017 culminated in a significant drop in generation, transmission and distribution of
electricity to many parts of the nation.
The Presidency disclosed in its report, yesterday: “System collapse on May 8, 2017
at 1429hrs. System frequency suddenly and sharply dropped from 51.06Hz to 43.37Hz,
leading to system collapse.
‘’Prior to collapse, Benin/Egbin 330kV line (cct B6N) was out on fault due to cut sky wire between towers #460 & 461.
“On May 9, 2017, average power sent out was 3425Wh/hour (up by 468MWh/h). The reported gas constraint was 1915MW.
“The reported line constraint was 150MW. The reported high frequency constraint was
59MW. The water management constraint was 260MW. The power sector lost an estimated N1, 144,000,000 on May 09 2017
due to constraints.’’
Investigations showed that the nation recorded two system collapse incidents in April 2017 alone, which also affected supply
to consumers.
A study by NOIPolls, an Abuja-based research outfit disclosed that power supply to households in the nation dropped to 30
per cent of installed capacity in the first quarter of this year, from the 37 per cent obtained in last quarter of last year.
The new aggregated power poll results released by NOIPolls for the first quarter of2017 showed that the lowest power supply
to households in Q1, 2017 was observed in January at 21 per cent.
The drop was attributed to the shortage of gas to the power generating companies and
low water levels at the hydro power stations.
For Q1 2017, the monthly average
cumulative hours of power supply
experienced was recorded as 7.5 hours daily in January, which was the lowest. It went up to 9.8 hours in February, which was recorded as the highest.
The results obtained from the poll also revealed that for Q4, 2016, average daily power cumulative supply was 9.6 hours, while in Q1, 2017, it dropped to an average
of 8.9 hours daily, indicating a 0.7-point decrease.
A cumulative power supply of 8.9 hours per day was assessed to be a far cry from the standard 24 hours power supply which Nigerian households ought to be
experiencing, thus further buttressing the issues inherent in Nigeria’s power sector.
The Federal government had embarked on several power sector interventions in the past, which have failed to yield any sustained positive impact.
Still, in the bid to revive the power sector, the Federal Government, in collaboration with the World Bank, recently set out guidelines for the power sector recovery
plans to create a viable industry that is privately run.
While this is a welcome strategy for the revival of the sector, the report posited that in the execution of the plan, constant
evaluation with visible milestones within specific time frames should be maintained.
“Although there are evidences of concerted efforts to make the power sector work at optimum level, the sector is still riddled with vast problems ranging from generation to distribution.
“Industry watchers have blamed majority of the crisis bedevilling the power sector on the monopolistic nature of the hydroelectric generating systems. Nigeria is blessed with
diverse natural resources which developed nations use to generate abundant electricity
but less attention has been paid to those options.”
“Nigeria is one of the least electrified nations and its current power generation, which continues to hover between 3,000
and 5,000 megawatts, cannot keep up with the population growth.
“According to a World Bank report, about 75 million Nigerians lack access to adequate electricity and Nigeria was ranked highest
among the countries with electricity access deficit when energy access, efficiency and
renewable are on the rise in many
developing nations.
“It is against this background that NOIPolls conducted its quarterly survey to assess electricity distribution to Nigerian
households in the first quarter of 2017,” it added.
Consumers Lament Poor Supply
The Chairman, Iponri Housing Estate Residents Association, Surulere, Abdul-Rasak Osho, said electricity supply in his area was
a bit better than what it used to be.
He, however, said that though generation was on the increase, power supply may not necessarily improve in all areas due to
transmission constraints.
