TheNewsGuru

Tag: Electricity

  • Nigeria cannot continue with excuses on NEPA failure – Tinubu

    Nigeria cannot continue with excuses on NEPA failure – Tinubu

    Former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, has said Nigeria as a nation cannot continue to give excuses for failure to generate a stable power supply.

    The APC presidential aspirant claimed Nigerian youths cannot be blamed for being “lazy” with erratic electricity supply in the country.

    Addressing youths of the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday in Lagos State, the party’s National Leader, said Nigeria cannot experience “rapid development” without electricity.

    According to Tinubu: “We cannot continue with excuses on NEPA failure. No! No nation can make rapid development without electricity.

    “Give us that, and if we cannot be successful, you can abuse us. You cannot give us erratic electricity that is undependable and then blame us again that we are lazy. No!

    “Nigeria — it is about time. We have enough gas to fire up our electricity. We can supply the rest of Europe with gas, and we can make money from it.”

    He said most Nigerian youths want to sit down and do nothing while relying on the claims that Nigeria is an oil-rich nation.

  • FEC approves N1.4bn to boost electricity supply

    FEC approves N1.4bn to boost electricity supply

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N1.4 billion for the supply of more equipment for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to boost electricity supply across the country.

    The Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, made this known when he briefed State House Correspondents on the outcome of the meeting of the council, presided by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.

    He said: “I presented two memos from the ministry of power for the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

    “The first one was a variation of the sum of a contract for 132/33 KV substation at Kafanchan, Kaduna State, with a KV line base extension at Jos substation, in Plateau State. This is in the sum of N132, 705, 861.42.”

    The minister said the second approval he got was for the supply of handling equipment and operational vehicles also for the Transmission Company of Nigeria at the cost of N1.3 billion.

    “The second memo was for the supply of handling equipment, haulage and operational vehicles for the TCN at N1,338,159,080.88.

    “They are heavy lifting equipment that the TCN requires for doing its work in the store and on the field, while changing equipment and moving transformers.

    “The council graciously approved,” he said.

    The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, announced that the council approved some fees for seeds production in the country.

    According to him, the council approved N400,000 per variety for private seed company and N100,000 per variety for research institutions.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also disclosed that the council approved an augmentation of N317.7 million for Pategi Water Supply project phase 11 in Kwara.

    He said the project was initially awarded in 2018 by the Buhari administration at the cost of N3.2 billion with a completion period of 74 months.

  • BREAKING: Tension as powerline sparks fire in Lagos for two days [Video]

    BREAKING: Tension as powerline sparks fire in Lagos for two days [Video]

    There was tension in Mende axis of Lagos as Maryland powerline sparked fire repeatedly on Tuesday night and early hours of Wednesday.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reliably gathered that the fire sparks started on Tuesday but the powerline was quickly switched off before it started this morning.

    In a trending video obtained by TNG shows electric cables by the popular Maryland bridge sparking fire not too far from the powerline.

    A staff of the power station who spoke to TNG under the condition of anonymity confirmed that there was fire sparks on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning but the power base was quickly switched off before it turns into full-blown fire.

    He said: “Everything is under control now because we promptly switched off the power base.

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  • Blackout: Again, national grid collapses despite FG’s assurance

    Blackout: Again, national grid collapses despite FG’s assurance

    Again darkness looms in Nigeria as electricity national grid has collapsed leaving the country without a public power supply.

    This is the third in less than a month, came despite double assurances by the Federal Government that it has taken steps to address the problem.

    The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) which manages the grid last month said it had developed alternative ways of managing the grid.

    TCN had stated that its “in-house engineers have deployed a stop-gap solution to improve grid monitoring and acquisition of data from remote stations (power stations and transmission substations) to the National Control Centre.

  • CBN disburses N1.3 trn to support power supply in 5 years

    CBN disburses N1.3 trn to support power supply in 5 years

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has disbursed over N1.3 trillion to support the provision of power supply to Nigerians in the last five years.

    The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, made the remark at a news conference following a meeting of the Bankers Committee in Abuja on Monday.

    “So, what we are trying to say here is that the CBN has always been there to support the power sector.

    ‘’Like you all know, we have disbursed over 1.3 trillion naira in the last five years to support through the Generators or Discos or to acquire equipment or to buy meters or to improve what is being paid to electricity generating companies;

    ‘’So that they can continue to pay for their gas and then the system can continue to operate.’’

    Emefiele further said that the bank had disbursed N11.11 billion to power sector players under the Nigeria bulk electronic trading payments assurance facility, bringing the cumulative disbursement under this facility to 1.28 trillion naira.

    ‘’The sum of N12.64 billion was also released to Discos under Nigeria electricity market stabilisation facility phase two line two.

    “Community disbursement under names two, first stand at 232.93 billion naira.

    “Both interventions were designed to improve access to capital and ease development of enabling infrastructure in the Nigeria electricity supply chain sector,’’ he added.

    Emefiele, however, pledged the apex bank’s commitment to continue to support Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to provide stable power supply to Nigerians.

    He said that the apex bank would be engaging with the Power Minister and NERC to see what could be done to support them.

    Emefiele also said that the bank would be providing interventions for the NNPC to ensure they import petroleum products that would end the shortage in the country.

    He noted that the Minister of Finance was holding engagements with Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to see to what could be done to ensure that adequate funding was provided to make petroleum products adequately available in the country.

    “We are also saying we will be engaging NNPC ourselves, if there’s any kind of intervention that we can provide to help make it easy for them to bring in these products, so that this shortage can stop.

    “Then we will see that when supply increases, people are relatively confident that when they sell whatever they’re holding, be it petrol or diesel that they can easily go and replace them, then the arbitrary price increases will reduce.

    “When arbitrary price reduces, of course, we can begin to see that there will be gradual moderation in the price of this product.

    ’’This would ultimately result in the moderation in the prices of other products that its price would have gone up as a result of the arbitrary increase in the price of these items.

    “This is simply how we think CBN can work with them,’’ he said.

    Emefiele, therefore, urged NNPC to take urgent steps to ensure adequate supply of petroleum products in Nigeria, so as to reduce the rate of arbitrary increase in price of this petroleum products by oil marketers.

    He also noted the unprecedented rate of oil theft recorded in recent times and its debilitating impact on government revenue and the nation’s reserve.

    “In the medium term, MPC is hopeful that a proposed take-off of the Dangote Refinery in the course of the year would help to improve the supply of petroleum products in Nigeria.

    “MPC also noted that the rising price of diesel is compounded by the problem of inadequate electricity supply in Nigeria, which has adversely impacted domestic prices.

    “MPC advises the CBN management and fiscal authorities to take specific and urgent action to avoid many power generating stations shut down for turnaround maintenance, resulting in the current unwarranted shutdown of our generated assets,’’ Emefiele said.

  • Power failure: Power Ministry pleads with Nigerians for understanding

    Power failure: Power Ministry pleads with Nigerians for understanding

    The Ministry of Power has appealed to Nigerians to show understanding over the epileptic energy situation as available generation capacity was exacerbated by ongoing water mgt regime at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro power plants.
    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports this was contained in a press release issued and signed by the minister, Abubakar D. Aliyu on Saturday.
    The minister explained that:”The Nigerian public may please recall that the national grid lost about 1,100MW generation capacity as a consequence of simultaneous disruptions in gas supply to the Okpai, Calabar and the Afam VI power plants.
    “The available generation capacity was exacerbated by the ongoing water management regime at the Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro power plants.
    “The progress so far made includes, amongst many other initiatives, the following:
    (i) The gas pipeline affected by acts of vandalism has been restored and the Okpai power plant has resumed power generation and currently contributing an average of 300MW.
    “The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Pl has been directed to enter into fast-track negotiation with NAOC on an interim energy sales agreement with a view bringing the new Okpai Il power plant on the grid thereby contributing additional 400MW of generation capacity.
    Read full release below:
    
Following the emergency meeting convened by the Honorable Minister of Power, Engr Abubakar Aliyu, on March 14th 2022 towards the restoration of normal supply of electricity supply nationwide and the development of a framework for sustainable improvement of supply, we are pleased to apprise consumers with an update on the progress so far made to address the recent challenges in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
    
The Nigerian public may please recall that the national grid lost about 1,100MW generation capacity as a consequence of simultaneous disruptions in gas supply to the Okpai, Calabar and the Afam VI power plants.
    The available generation capacity was exacerbated by the ongoing water management regime at the Kainji,
Jebba and Shiroro power plants. The progress so far made includes, amongst many other initiatives, the following:
    
(i) The gas pipeline affected by acts of vandalism has been restored and the Okpai power plant has resumed power generation and currently contributing an average of 300MW.

(ii) The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Pl has been directed to enter into fast-track negotiation with NAOC on an interim energy sales agreement
with a view bringing the new Okpai Il power plant on the grid thereby contributing additional 400MW of generation capacity.

(iii) The “pigging” of the gas pipeline supplying gas to the Odukpani power plant is scheduled for completion on March 21 st 2022 thus ramping up
generation by about 400MW.

(iv) In order to optimise the capacity utilisation of the power plants owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd (NDPHC), the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved a special gas pricing for emergency contracting of gas from the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Ltd. We expect an on-grid improvement of about 800MW generation capacity from the NDPHC plants.
    
(v) In the medium-term, we have agreed with NGPIC (…a subsidiary of NNPC) on the framework for the overhaul of the Okoloma gas processing plant thereby restoring the full capacity of the 650MW Afam VI combined cycle power plant.

(vi) While the recent spate of system collapse is regrettable, it was a direct consequence of a snap on a 330kV transmission line.
    The mitigation
measures for avoiding such incidence of blackouts are being implemented through several interventions including the Presidential Power Initiative.
    
We wish to reassure all electricity consumers that all relevant agencies involved in the restoration of normality in power supply have been charged to act in the context of the emergency state of the industry. The Federal Ministry of Power shall continue to periodically update the nation on the progress.
  • Electricity: National grid collapse again

    Electricity: National grid collapse again

    Head, Corporate Communications, Ikeja Electric Plc, Felix Ofulue, has confirmed the system collapse of the National Grid on Tuesday, as the second in less than 48 hours.

    The national power grid earlier experienced system crash on Monday, causing a loss of 1,100 megawatts from a 3,700mw peak generation earlier recorded and throwing the country into nationwide power outage.

    Confirming the development to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday, Ofulue said that the collapse of the grid occured at 5.10 p.m.

    Accordingly, a text message sent out to residents read: “Dear esteemed customers, we would like to inform you of another system collapse on the national grid which occurred at 5:10 p.m today (Tuesday).

    “We are monitoring the situation and will continue to provide updates. Once again we apologise for the inconvenience,” Eko DisCo said in a statement.

    The grid, which is being managed by government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria, has continued to suffer system collapse over the years amid a lack of spinning reserve that is meant to forestall such occurrences.

    Spinning reserve is the generation capacity that is online but unloaded and that can respond within 10 minutes to compensate for generation or transmission outages.

    Many states across the country, including Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory have been thrown into darkness and residents have urged the government to ensure that power supply is restored soon.

  • FG quietly ends electricity subsidy

    FG quietly ends electricity subsidy

    The federal government (FG) of Nigeria has quietly removed electricity subsidy, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has revealed.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Ahmed revealed this while speaking on Thursday at a virtual meeting of African Finance Ministers and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    The Minister of Finance stressed the FG was making efforts to make sure that subsidies were cleaned up totally in the country, stressing that what is next is fuel subsidy.

    Ahmed noted that the FG is currently doing a budget amendment to accommodate incremental subsidy removal as a result of the reversal of the decision to remove fuel subsidy by July.

    She stressed fuel subsidy remained a huge problem for the government and that it had thrown up deficits more than what was planned.

    “We are cleaning up our subsidies. We had a setback; we were to remove fuel subsidy by July this year but there was a lot of pushback from the polity. We have elections coming and because of the hardship that companies and citizens went through during the COVID-19 pandemic, we just felt that the time was not right, so we pulled back on that.

    “But we have been able to quietly implement subsidy removal in the electricity sector and as we speak, we don’t have subsidies in the electricity sector. We did that incrementally over time by carefully adjusting the prices at some levels while holding the lower levels down.

    “We are currently doing a budget amendment to accommodate incremental subsidy (removal) as a result of the reversal of the decision and we want to cap it at that.

    “Hopefully, the parliament will agree with us and we are able to continue with our plan for subsidy (removal) otherwise the way things are going we will not be able to predict where the deficit will be as a result of the fluctuation in the global market,” Ahmed said.

  • Blackout looms across Nigeria as 14 power plants develop faults

    Blackout looms across Nigeria as 14 power plants develop faults

    The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has hinted that Nigeria’s capacity to supply power has declined massively.

    According to a statement issued by the regulatory body, 14 generation plants are working on a low capacity.

    The statement reads that power generation profile has degenerated because the 14 gas stations have been operating at very low capacity and limited generations at various times within the period.

    Ndidi Mba ,the spokesperson for TCN said that the situation further exacerbated the quantum of power generation available for transmission into the grid on a daily basis.

    ”This is coming at a time consumers are expected to pay more for electricity under the Service Based Tariff (SBT). The SBT was introduced on the ground that power will improve. Instead, the situation went from bad to worse.

    ”Statistics from Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc showed that an average of N720 billion worth of electricity bill is processed yearly in the country, bringing the cost to about N5.7 trillion in the last eight years. Electricity users in Nigeria settle these bills with measurable subsidy from the Federal Government.

    “Currently, the cumulative generation nationwide is low and generation companies have attributed this to several factors including poor gas supply, faults in generating units, scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, all of which have caused most power companies to limit their generation, or sometimes not generate at all.

    “A summary of the power generating profiles in the last two months, for instance, clearly shows that 14 gas-powered stations were either not generating at all or had limited generation at various times within the period, further depleting the quantum of power generation available for transmission into the grid on a daily basis.”

    Power generating stations in this category include: Omotosho units five and six; Olorunsogo units three, four and six; Omoku units three and six; Omotosho NIPP units three and four; Delta units 15, 17, and 18; Afam VI units 11 and 12; Olorunsogo NIPP unit three; Ihovbor NIPP unit two; Sapele Steam unit three; Sapele NIPP unit three; Odukpani NIPP units one and three, and Okpai units 11, 12 and 18.” Mba said.

  • FG again warns DISCOS to stop selling meters

    FG again warns DISCOS to stop selling meters

    The Federal Government on Thursday in Abuja cautioned Distribution Companies (DISCOS) again against selling electricity meters to customers, saying procurement of meters is free of charge.

    Minister of Power, Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu, gave the warning during the weekly State House ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Media Team.

    The minister blamed those he described as `touts’ and “kabu-kabu’’ people in the power sector as responsible for the reported selling of meters to electricity customers.

    “You will always have these kinds of things – like somebody trying to short-change others; otherwise these meters are free; we said it a number of times.

    “These are tools that will generate liquidity. How can we be selling something that will bring in money?

    “It is the responsibility of the DISCOS and the government is seeing that they are not doing so.

    “So, government is stepping in and giving the DISCOS the meters to distribute for free.

    “But there’ll always be `touts’ and `kabu-kabu’ and I think it’s the touts that are doing this kind of shoddy deal,’’ he said.

    According to the minister, accelerated procurement of four million meters for the second phase of the Federal Government’s mass metering programme is on-going, with critical focus on local manufacturers.

    “Currently, close to one million meters have been rolled out under the first phase and accelerated procurement is on-going for the second phase of four million meters with critical focus on local manufacturers.

    “This is aimed at providing jobs through the programme.

    “The first phase generated 10,000 jobs in installation and assembly. We anticipate that the second phase contract will be awarded by the end of the second quarter of this year.

    “There will be a third phase that will provide additional two million meters, funded through the World Bank,” he added.

    The minister also warned that actions would be taken against underperforming DISCOs under the guidelines of the contractual agreements as the Federal Government had improved regulatory certainty.

    On erratic power supply currently being experienced in Abuja and other parts of the country, the minister said the problem was caused by low water level in the hydro power stations.

    “With the reduction in water levels at the hydro power stations during the dry season, the need for additional load to be taken up by gas plants and the challenges in repairs currently being done on generators are responsible for the load shedding and power outages,’’ he said.

    According to him, government is doing everything to ensure optimum supply of gas to ensure quick restoration of power.

    The minister, who spoke on various power initiatives by the ministry, including the Presidential Power Initiative being driven by Siemens, maintained that the issue of right of way was stalling power projects.

    “We are engaging with state governors through the Nigerian Governors Forum to drive a holistic solution to these lingering issues.

    “Critical projects held up by right of way are the Benin to Osogbo 330 KV line which is 250 kilometres long and the Ikot Ekpene to Ikot Abasi also 330 KV line, which is 68 kilometres long.

    “Another is the Kano-Katsina 330 KV line, also 180 kilometres long,’’ he said.

    According to Aliyu, the attention the power sector is receiving under the Buhari administration is unprecedented.

    “Since the inception of the present government, it has turned its attention to our infrastructure and the attention this government is giving in my own view, is unprecedented.

    “The enormity of the decay in the sector is what we are battling with to ensure we overcome challenges associated with electricity delivery in the country,’’ he stressed.