Nationwide outages on June 12, as 11 DisCos receive 510MW
Oredola Adeola
A nationwide power outages occurred on Sunday June 12, 2022, a day set aside to celebrate the country’s democracy. The blackout reoccured a week after a similar crisis was recorded.
This was obtained by EnergyDay from data released by the Nigeria System Operator in its daily operational report for the period under review.
As of 10pm on Sunday the eleven(11) electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) received about 510MW.
The data showed that at 10 pm, Ikeja Electric and Ibadan DISCO received the highest load allocation with 150MW each, followed by Enugu and Benin DisCos that received 70MW each.
The allocation to other DisCos were Abuja DisCo(20MW), EKO DisCo (0MW), Jos DisCo (0MW), Kaduna DisCo (50MW), Kano DisCo (0MW), Port Harcourt DisCo (0MW) and Yola DisCo (0MW).
EnergyDay further gathered that sixteen (16) power plants were operational while eight(8) others including Egbin are completely shut due to a combination of factors including gas, routine maintenance and lower water levels at hydropower plants among other issues.
The data from system operator showed that the 16 operational power plants generated 3628MegaWatt (MW) of electricity into the grid, out of which about 3118MW (85 percent) of electricity could not be accounted for within the transmission network, leaving about 15 percent distributed by the DISCOs.
EnergyDay gathered that the Egbin power plant with the largest generation of 1,050 Megawatts(18 percent) of the total energy output was completely shut down.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, in a statement on Sunday said, “We regret to inform you of the system collapse from the National grid. This has affected our entire network and impacted our ability to deliver optimum service.
The DisCo that could not receive any allocation on its network urged its customers to bear with it, promising that the company is working with TCN to resolve the crisis.
Abuja Electricity Distribution (AEDC) Plc, the network operator for the FCT,Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa on Sunday in a statement attributed the instability in the supply of electricity to its franchise area to system failure from the national grid which it claimed collapsed at about 6:49pm.
Kaduna Electric in a statement by Abdulazeez Abdullahi, Head, Corporate Communication, said, “We regret to inform you that the power outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to System Collapse of the National Grid.
The collapse occurred at about 18:47 pm this evening hence the loss of supply on all our outgoing feeders. Power supply shall be restored as soon as the National Grid is powered back.
Engr. Abubakar Aliyu, Minister of Power , had in a recent statement claimed that the dip in electricity generation was as a result of the partial shutdown of the Oben gas plant, which was undergoing critical repairs . The gas plant serves as a major processing station for the\supply of gas to power plants.
The incident, according to the Minister, occurred at a time when other power plants on other gas sources were undergoing planned maintenance and capacity testing.
He assured that Seplat Energy Plc, manager of the facility, has mobilized equipment, material and personnel to site with a view to expediting the restoration of normal gas supply to the affected power plants. He also promised that the repair work would be concluded this weekend and normalcy would be restored as quickly as possible.
Chiedu Ugbo, Managing Director, NDPHC, who recently confirmed this, also claimed that the plants have been under performing due to gas constraints.
Only the Jebba Hydro plant was operational as at the period of filing this report while Kainji and Shiroro Power went down due to technical issues.
The TCN in a statement on the sideline of persistent low generation and consequently low load allocation complaints by the DISCOs, on gas constraints, fault, and technical problems within generating plants.
Ndidi Mbah, TCN General Manager, Public Affairs had in a statement released last week claimed that there was no sixth grid collapse this year, nor has there been any recently.
She claimed that the outage was because power generation from both the Thermal and Hydro Stations have been very low.
The TCN’s spokesperson said, “Also, the current dip in electricity generation was caused by the Partial Shutdown of Oben gas plant to address some Process Safety Critical Equipment failure, which led to a total loss of about 565.5MW of generation from seven thermal stations.
GENCOs
Dr Joy Ogaji, Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) in a recent statement called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to reintroduce a spinning reserve that could be used to save the grid from collapse.
According to her, grid disturbances are because of the difference between power generation and load demand, causing the grid frequency to rise above 50 hertz (Hz).
She said, “Operating Reserve is an ancillary service. This ancillary service shall be considered mandatory. The system operator shall contract for Operating Reserve to enable it to always operate the transmission system securely,” APGC cited the Grid Code.
“Without the spinning reserve, the GenCos have to be adjusting their voltage rating which was already affecting their turbines and putting many in maintenance mode.
“For the GenCos, the absence of the spinning reserves has not been in their best interest. The instability of the grid has forced the GenCos’ machinery to perform below the designed capacity.
She further said that the issue has created a huge financial burden on the GENCOs, especially in the event of the cost of generating the electricity that is not fully utilized.
