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Tag: Electricity

  • Nigeria lost N4bn to electricity workers strike

    The industrial action undertaken by members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Wednesday may have cost the country over N4 billion with nationwide outages.

    NUEE called off the strike yesterday after meeting with the Federal Government.

    Reports reveal that at least N1.9bn is lost on a normal daily basis when power generation is at an average 3,850 megawatts (MW), record of daily Energy Report by the Advisory Power Team, Office of the Vice President for September 2019 indicates.

    However, in the case of Wednesday’s strike, the national grid was said to have fallen lower than 1,000MW and at some point to a complete shutdown as the union locked out electricity workers across major power generation stations, transmission stations and the distribution stations.

    Experts in the power sector said the losses were unquantifiable but could be over N4bn just for the electricity industry alone.

    As at Tuesday before the strike action commenced, the peak power generation was 4,047.2MW but dropped to abysmally lower figures on Wednesday due to non-operation of the plants.

    NUEE said it protested the non-payment of salaries, pensions and other entitlements across the privatised power firms. NUEE had earlier given a 21-day notice in a letter written to the Minister of Power, Engr. Sale Mamman to intervene in the issue.

    The duration however elapsed on Tuesday, forcing the NUEE members with support from the umbrella body of Trade Union Congress (TUC) to protest. Our reporter observed that electricity workers at the headquarters of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) joined in the protest.

    The union blamed the Federal Ministry of Power for failing to act within the warning period.

    A copy of the letter seen on Wednesday by this paper was signed by the National President of NUEE, Comrade Joe Ajaero. The union said all the power firms must comply with their terms.

    Some of these include remittance of pensions due to all the engaged staff of the DisCos, Generation Companies (GenCos) and other power firms, most of them transferred from the defunct PHCN after the power sector privatization in 2013.

  • Nationwide blackout as power grid collapses

    Nigeria was yesterday thrown into darkness as the National Electricity Transmission System, also known as power grid, suffered total collapse for the 12th time between January 1 and December 11, 2019.

    The collapse came exactly 32 days after the last failure pushed distribution companies across the country into power load shedding.

    The National Electricity Transmission System is being managed by government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and it has continued to suffer system collapse over the years amid lack of spinning reserve that is meant to forestall such occurrences.

    One of the nation’s distribution companies, Eko Electricity Distribution Plc., confirmed the collapse, informing residents of estates on its network that the prolonged power outage, which they suffered yesterday, was caused by the collapse.

    Stating that efforts were being made by EKEDC engineers to rectify this and restore power to the estates, the utility company informed residents that the prolonged power outage being experienced was as a result of system collapse from the national grid.

    This is not the first time that the company has issued apology to residents over collapse.

    On November 9, EKEDC stated that the grid collapsed at 11:15p.m. on Friday and 3:15 a.m. on Saturday. It was experienced across all transmission stations at 23:15hrs on the day.

    “Supply was received at 03:15hrs. Sadly, at 04:38hrs, the system collapsed again. TCN and our team are working to restore supply. Kindly bear with us,” the Disco said on its Twitter handle.

    Another Disco, Jos Electricity Distribution Plc., announced to its customers that “there is power outage in all our franchise states due to system collapse nationwide.
    “We will provide an update shortly. Thank you for bearing with us,” it said.

    Just three months ago, the power grid suffered a major collapse, the ninth in 2019.

    The nation’s power grid, it would be recalled, also recorded its eighth total collapse in July, plunging consumers across the country into blackout for some hours.

    The government-owned TCN, which manages the grid, blamed electricity distribution companies for the system failure.

    The grid had suffered four total collapses in January and one each in February, April and May, according to the system operator.

    Efforts to reach TCN for reaction on the latest collapse proved abortive. Neither a text message nor a call made to the company’s spokesperson was successful.

    The TCN had, in a statement, said the incessant system collapse was due to high voltage following a massive drop of load by the electricity distribution companies.

    The DisCos’ revenue collection, despite the incessant power supply epilepsy, stood at N118.9 billion in the second quarter, up from N114.6 billion in Q1, a data obtained from the Association of National Electricity Distributors (ANED) confirmed the revenue collected as bills from customers.

    ANED, the umbrella body for the DisCos, said energy received in Q2 dropped to 6,912.8 gigawatt-hours from 6,950.8GWh in Q1, with energy billed being 5,587.5GWh (an equivalent of N180.8bn) and 5,576.8GWh (N176.5bn), respectively.

    The DisCos’ collection efficiency improved to 66 per cent in Q2 from 65 per cent in Q1.

    “The energy received by DisCos in Q2 was less than the amount received in Q1 for most of the DisCos. Only Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja Electric, and Kano Electricity Distribution Company received more energy,” the association said in the document.

    ANED said: “In a yearly comparison, the revenue collection of all DisCos has increased in N47 billion (12 per cent), mostly due to the reduction of the aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses from 50.8 per cent to 46.7 per cent.”

    It said that the aggregate technical and commercial losses went down from 23 per cent to 20 per cent and collection efficiency increased from 63 per cent to 66 per cent.

    The DisCos collected N453 billion as revenue from July 2018 to June 2019, compared to N406 billion paid by consumers from July 2017 to June 2018, according to the data.

    “Nevertheless, some DisCos show signs of fatigue in their ATC&C performance improvement in the last months.

    “Ikeja Electric has broken a new record in the ATC&C losses with 26.1 per cent in June, reducing 5.5 points in one year,” ANED said.

    It said two other DisCos, Kano Electricity Distribution Company Plc. and Jos Electricity Distribution Plc., reduced the ATC&C losses in the last 12 months by 8.6 points and 11.6 points, respectively.

    “For this year, most of the DisCos have not been able to beat their last year records on collection efficiency,” the association added.

  • Electricity: AEDC, TCN embark on network reconfiguration in FCT

    The Abuja Distribution Company (AEDC) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) have concluded plans to carry out a joint network reconfiguration to boost power supply in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
    Mr Oyebode Fadipe, AEDC’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, made this known in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
    Fadipe said that the reconfiguration exercise was to enable the two agencies redistribute load on existing 100MVA transformer at the Apo transmission.
    He said that the reconfiguration exercise would be aimed at improving power supply and service delivery in the territory.
    “Customers will recall that since the fire incident at Apo in April, there had been a regime of load shedding.
    “This reconfiguration exercise is intended to cure the load shedding and bring greater stability to the network,” he said.
    According to Fadipe, the exercise, which will take place on Saturday, July 20, will necessitate the interruption of power supply in some areas in the FCT.
    He listed the areas to include Lokogoma, Lugbe, Garki, Apo, Central Business District, Trade More Estate, Pegi, some parts of Asokoro and environs, from 10am until 2pm.
    . “We, therefore, appeal to all AEDC customers, who will be affected by the consequential power interruption, to please bear with the organisation for the duration of the exercise, ” he said.

  • TCN gets $1.6 billion to boost power supply in Nigeria

    The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), says it has received 1.661 billion dollars from multi-lateral donors to boost power supply in the country.
    Mr Usman Mohammed, the Managing Director of TCN made this known at the organisation’s quarterly news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
    Mohammed said that TCN had raised significant amount to reinforce the system under the critical investment programme.
    “As at today, the amount we have raised from multi-lateral donors has risen to 1.661 billion dollars to execute some power projects in the country.
    “These projects include the Abuja Wheeling Scheme that will bring five sub-stations and bring a new supply route to the territory.
    “The new route will be from Lafia to Abuja with 330 Kilo Volt (KV) line and two 330KV sub-stations in Abuja and put addition three numbers 132 KV sub-stations in the territory,’’ he said.
    He said that the contract for the project had been signed and divided into six slots, adding that 10 contractors had been pre-qualified.
    According to Mohammed, the company has also recovered 775 power equipment containers out of 800 abandoned at the ports due to tariff related issues, while two have been declared missing, and two empty.
    “We discovered that two containers were missing and we have reported to the police and they are investigating the matter,’’ he said.
    He, however, did not tell the contents or the value of the missing containers, but pledged to work with his team to recover them.
    Mohammed explained that TCN “is going to recover about 2,000 to 3,000mw with the present upgrade of its equipment.
    “Which automatically means the grid will shift from 8,000MW to at least 10,000 MW,’’ he said.
    The TCN boss said that the company had used their staff to forcefully take over some contracts and those contracts were at the point of completion.
    He noted that in spite of the massive investment so far recorded by the sector from the transmission end, the distribution companies were yet to match it with a proportional upgrade of their equipment.
    This, according to him, is responsible for the frequent system collapses in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry.

  • Why power supply cuts off during rainfall

    The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), says that it cuts-off electricity supply most times when it rains to save lives, properties and to protect its equipment.

    Mr Oyebode Fadipe, AEDC’s General Manager, Corporate Communications gave the explanation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.

    Fadipe, was reacting to complaints by consumers that whenever it rained, electricity supply was cut-off for days.

    “The issue of electricity supply going off, especially when it rains could be viewed from two perspectives, which could be electricity lines and poles being pulled down by the rains or some other major interruption.

    “To avoid any form of destruction to lives and properties, the system is programmed go off when it is about to rain.

    “Customers would have also observed that after rain, attempt is made to restore the supply which is called “ flashing’’

    “If we try to restore supply and it is not stable, it means that maybe a pole or two is broken and the conductor is lying on the ground” he said.

    According to him, AEDC duty is to look for the problem and try to restore supply as the speed of repair is totally different from the speed when destruction takes place.

    He said that when the network for one reason or the other is impaired, it would take a bit of time to bring back the poles, string the lines and other things needed to restore power.

    Speaking on the issue of laying cable underground as was being done in other countries, Fadipe said that the issue was not alien to them.

    He said that in Abuja, network was underground and AEDC had to buy specialised vehicle to be able to trace any fault on those cables.

    “We have a specilised vehicle which when you connect a motorised equipment to even if the fault is at Sheraton Hotel, it will give us the location.

    “We have invested in equipment, unlike the old practice before privatisation when there is a fault, we will have to dig from one point to the other and you destroy the roads.

    “And also, most of our network is overhead so that you don’t have to destroy the roads and you don’t have to spike the cables,” he said.

    He, however, assured consumers that AEDC was working on ensuring effective power supply in the territory.

  • GenCos release 3,919MW of electricity on June 3 – Report

    Electricity Generating Companies (GenCos) comprising gas-fired and hydro stations released an average of 3, 919 MegaWatts (MW) of power into the national grid on Monday, a daily energy report has said.

    It said that the energy released by the companies was up by 139.64MW from the figure delivered on Sunday, NAN reports.

    It said 1,808MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas.

    Similarly, it said 728MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructures.

    It said 289 MW was recorded as losses due to water management procedures .

    The report revealed that the power sector lost an estimated N1.3 billion on Monday to the factors of insufficient gas supply, distribution and transmission infrastructure.

    On sector reform and activities, it said that the dominant constraint for Monday’s generation was unavailability of gas.

  • Unbundling the power, works & housing ministry

    By Paul Ojenagbon,pauloje2000@yahoo.com

    It was the biggest gamble to merge Power, Works & Housing into a humongous Ministry in 2016 following the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari. A more focused nation would never dare that. It was clearly an unthinkable thing to do. No nation still wallowing in the throes of development would attempt to place the most critical sectors of its economy under the control of a super minister. It is akin to laying all one’s eggs in one basket! What it means is that if the minister failed, the entire nation would ultimately fail in all these important indexes of development. Even the developed nations with perhaps lesser risks to take would not attempt it. If the thinking was to curtail the administrative overhead of running these key ministries separately, it follows that the magnitude of the resultant failure now staring the nation in the face has been more monumental not only on the economy but also on Nigerians generally.

    Give it to him, Babatunde Fashola was an excellent performer as governor in Lagos which probably informed his being given this portfolio but like most Nigerians am yet to see a commensurate performance as minister in charge of the consolidated ministry. Instead, it has been baskets of excuses why Nigerians are not enjoying reasonable power supply. Most times, Fashola speaks on power situation in the country; his oft bloated assessment is starkly different from the reality on the ground.

    As I write this piece, my area has been in darkness for three days not because the transformer has broken down but for reasons that only EKEDC can adduce. Not all of us have the resources to run substations called generators throughout the dreadful night transition period. It is no longer news that mains power is now the ‘standby’ source of power in many homes and offices and no longer generators. Most Nigerians put off their generators between 12 midnight and 1am and resort to the use of rechargeable lamps and fans. Because they have worked for long spells of time longer than they were meant for, the rechargeable lamps soon lose their brightness and the fans go off exposing the ‘inmates’ to heat and mosquitoes. At that point, it is very difficult to sleep but to wish that the day break would come quicker than before. This is a routine experience of most Nigerians that clearly indicate our terribly poor quality of life. But what are governments meant for? I would never stop praying for better leaders!
    Kudos to the Chinese, a country with a monstrous population about ten times ours who never stop to think and create a better world for hapless societies like ours that cannot invent even the most basic things. We eagerly look forward to when the Chinese shall come up with rechargeable refrigerators and even air-conditioners.
    But electricity supply in my area has never been this bad. Before now, we took consolation in the fact that though we were denied during the working day hours, most nights it would come and we could sleep with it till the following morning. Now they would rather bring it for few hours, 2 or 3 of the day and that is all for the whole day. Now, we are counting days, not sure when it will come again.

    Some energy statistics running currently in the social media credited to African Outlook of power generation in certain parts of the world would clearly show that the so called giant of Africa is still light years away from true civilization. India with a population of 1,339,000,000 generates 1,368,000,000MW with power to population ratio at 1.022, USA with a population of 320,000,000 generates 4,324,000,000MW with a power to population ratio of 13.513 and the UK with a population of 67,000,000 generates 338,000,000MW with a power to population ratio of 5.045. Nigeria with an estimated population of 180,000,000 generates 5000MW accounting for power to population ratio of abysmally 0.000027. Any little wonder why the country stagnates, the economy is down and teeming population are unemployed. Power supply is the catalyst of any growth in a country. The industrial revolution in Europe was driven on power from coal. Today, they are advanced and their citizens have all the comforts. What values are politicians or indeed democracy adding to the fortunes of the country? Is it just to enjoy the spoils of office and abdicate the responsibilities? What a shame.
    Like several other matters choking on the front burner of our polity, the federal government-past and present have not done enough to exorcise the abiku called electricity supply. The reforms brought in were cosmetic and not deep. The Discos cannot distribute what they do not have; generation is still largely the problem though there is barrage of other problems. Often times, the solution to our problems stare us right in the face but lack of political will makes us to jettison them. The present structure is one glaring example. Power, Works and Housing are three key, troublesome sectors that would galvanize the growth and development of this country. Each of them has enough problems of its own and to have merged them is to multiply these problems by three and to commit them into the hands of one minister to solve. The minister cannot give adequate attention to the needs of each of them. Focus is not guaranteed either. Why are the Independent Power Projects (IPPs) not working out? To underscore the urgency of the situation, a state of emergency would have been suggested but has this ever made a difference? Fashola has too much on his hands to manage these ministries together as one. Besides, what is a lawyer doing in power sector? Do you have non-lawyers managing the Justice Ministry or non-doctors the ministry of health?

    Power sector needs a dedicated minister who is a specialist and has very good knowledge of the workings of the system. He would understand the challenges and be able to navigate a road map for their solution. Power sector needs a minister who can make it his focus of attention. Power sector once had Prof. Barth Nnaji and he was not doing badly but continuity broke up. Where are the Philip Emeagwalis of this country that we exported to the world? There are lots of competent Nigerians who can head that Ministry and do the needful but politics should be kept out of that place. If not, we cans get expatriates to do it for us with a clear mandate; there is no shame in that. Politicians should cease seeing the power ministry as their cash cow. They should let Nigerians enjoy the dividends of democracy for once. The multiplier effects of stable power supply would reduce criminality, youth restiveness and even terrorism because most of those who involve in these vices would be gainfully employed. As Buhari warms up to mount the saddle for second term, barring the outcome of the appeal filed by his PDP rival, Atiku Abubakar, Nigerians collectively ask him to break up the present humongous ministry and get power a separate minister who will get Nigeria out of darkness in record time.

  • UNN sets record of electricity generation with organic waste

    The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) on Tuesday set the record of electricity generation by using organic waste to install 100KVA Refuse Drived Fuel (RDF) gasification plant for its Nsukka Campus.

    Prof Benjamin Ozumba, UNN Vice-Chancellor, who expressed happiness over the project during its inauguration, said the university would no longer be a customer to Enugu Electricity Distribution Company
    (EEDC).

    He said the project was first of its kind in Nigeria and described it as another feather added to the cap of the institution.

    “I am happy that the university under my watch has witnessed innovations and transformation, as today another feather has been added to the cap of my administration.

    “This is the first of its kind in the country, using of waste to generate electricity.

    “By the time more of the plants are produced that will cover every part of the university, millions of naira will be saved every month, as UNN will longer pay monthly electricity bill to EEDC,” he said.

    The VC also commended Prof Emenike Ejiogu-led research team that produced the RDF gas plant.

    In his remark, Ejiogu from the Department of Electrical Engineering applauded Ozumba on his belief of making record-breaking innovations to transform UNN.

    “The 100 KVA RDF project is designed and fabricated by laboratory of industrial power devices and energy system under special grant by Ozumba.

    “The aim is to enable UNN to generate its own electricity with organic waste that will serve as fuel,” he said.

    The Japan-trained engineer said his research team was set to produce 250KVA plants, which will supply the energy
    need of the entire university and its environ.

    “UNN power demand now is 3mgwats, so with twelve 250KVA of RDF plants, we will meet electricity supply need of
    the university,” he said.

    He said on request, his research team was ready to install the RDF plants to any individual, company or office who needed it.

    “It is cheaper and can carry more loads than solar energy installation.

    “With RDF plant in your house or office, it will carry your air-condition, deep freezers, pressing iron and other things in your house, office or company,” he said.

    Ejiogu listed some of the organic waste that could be used as waste materials to power the plant to include: agricultural byproducts such as corn husks, wood chips among others.

    He said the plant would create employment for many people through supplying of waste to UNN or other people who would be using the plant,” he said.

    Some UNN staff in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria described the innovation as one of the greatest legacies of Ozumba.

  • Electricity: Generation, transmission peak at 5,375MW – TCN

    The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the National Grid successfully transmitted a new generation peak of 5,375MW on Feb. 7.

    Mrs Ndidi Mbah, TCN General Manager, Public Affairs in a statement in Abuja on Monday said it was the first time the nation’s power grid generated, transmitted and distributed such quantum of power.

    She said the attainment of new national peak in power generation, transmission and distribution was a clear indication of the success of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s policy on incremental power.

    Mbah said the generation peak of 5,224MW which was also successfully transmitted by TCN was attained on Dec. 18, 2017.

    “This has now been surpassed by the new peak of 5,375MW.’’

    According to her, the present capacity of Generation Companies (GenCos) nationwide is 7,450MW which is expected to significantly increase with the expected recovery of all the generators at Egbin plant by the management of Sahara Energy.

    “The capacity of transmission based on the simulation of December. 2018 is 8,100MW.

    “Since the last simulation, several transformers have been added to transmission,’’ she said.

    Mbah said with the new combined peak, Distribution Companies (DisCos) had also increased their capacity.

    She, however, said more work was needed to improve the distribution capacities to fully stabilise the sector.

    The TCN spokesperson said the company had continued to upgrade critical transmission infrastructure nationwide with the commissioning of more than 40 power transformers and lines in 2017 and 2018.

    She said the company had also constructed seven new substations and was diligently pursuing its Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP).

    “As at date, TCN’s wheeling capacity has increased from 5,000MW in 2016 to 7,124MW in 2017 and 8,100MW in 2018.’’

    She said TCN was not only focusing on grid expansion but also on the quality of the power.

    The TCN spokesperson said TCN achieved frequency control of between 49.50Hz and 50.50Hz between May 2017 and Nov. 2018 which had not been achieved for the past 20 years.

    “From Dec. 2018 to date, TCN equally achieved the best frequency control of between 49.75Hz and 50.25Hz for 85 per cent of the time.’’

    This, she said was the best frequency ever witnessed in the history of the Nigerian power sector.

  • C’River Govt. approves N8.5bn for electrification in 400 communities

    C’River Govt. approves N8.5bn for electrification in 400 communities

    The Cross River Government has approved N8.5 billion for the provision of electricity in over 400 communities across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.

    Dr Jake Otu-Enyia, the Director-General of the State Electrification Agency (SEA) made this known on Tuesday in Calabar during a visit to his office by Mr Ayodele Adegoke, the State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

    He said that procurement processes had since commenced for the project.

    “This is in line with the Cross River State Executive Council’s approval of 100 per cent electricity coverage across the state,’’ Otu-Enyia said.

    He said the current administration in the state had done well by improving the electricity sub-sector including the direct intervention, in the provision of electricity materials worth over N30 million in over 30 communities.

    The director-general, however, promised to send a team of engineers to carry out a survey to ascertain the capacity of transformers required by the NYSC Orientation Camp in Obubra Local Government Area.

    Otu-Enyia said he would communicate same to the governor for assistance.

    Earlier, the state coordinator of NYSC had requested for an electricity transformer for the state’s NYSC permanent orientation camp.

    According to him, the camp had been in darkness for decades, hence the appeal for the state government’s intervention.