Leadership (Abuja)
9 April 2008
More revelations came yesterday as to why the nation has been experiencing epileptic power supply for several years; a survey conducted by the Energy Commission of Nigeria on the performance of generating plants has revealed that the country's three large hydropower sations, namely Kainji, Shiroro, and Jebba that are supposed to operate as base load are experiencing many hours of outage.
The report said the Shiroro hydro power plant specifically experiences 100 to 250 planned and unplanned outrages per unit in a given year.
According to the minister of state for Energy (Power), Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim, who made the contents of the report known at the on going World Energy Commission workshop on performance of generating plants in Abuja Tuesday said information collated from the other stations reveal that similar cases of outage occur in them with the resultant negative effect on sector performance.
She stated that "it is in view of this and the importance of reliable power supply for improvement of the social and economic development of any nation that the World Energy Commission monitors the performance of generating plants in any utility worldwide with a view to highlighting same and sensitising the operators of the power plants to take all necessary measures to ensure regular and effective maintenance of facilities in the plants".
On the current electricity supply and demand in the country, She disclosed that in 2007 available generation stood at 5000mw, from PHCN generation plants and 4 Independent Power Producers (IPP), while the private participants contribute about 20 per cent of available generation capacity.
Currently, she said the generation mix is 70 per cent from thermal plants and 30 per cent from hydro power plants adding that the transmission facilities in the country are mainly radial 330kv and 132kv lines with route lengths of about 5000km and 7000km, respectively.
The minister stated that "The analysis above showed that the country over the years has not taken very seriously the advantages of the potentials of renewable energy resources that abound in the country."
Going further, she said the total consumer population is about 4.5million, comprising residential (92 per cent), commercial (6 per cent), industrial (0.1 per cent), and others (1.9 per cent), while electric energy consumption by consumer category is residential (64 per cent), commercial (20 per cent), industrial (10 per cent), exports (5 per cent) and tertiary health and educational institutions (1 per cent).
On billings, Mrs Ibrahim disclosed that the total average monthly billing is about N9.2billion or US$76.67 million while total average monthly revenue is about N7.4billion or US$61.67 million which represents a collection efficiency of about 80 per cent.
According to her,presently, the transmission and distribution losses,including non-technical losses, are about 35 per cent while access to electricity is estimated at 40 per cent, indicating that about 60 per cent of the population have no access to electricity in the country.
Speaking at the workshop, vice chairman, World Energy Council and chairman, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Professor. Sambo, said it is disturbing to know that Nigeria which has a national electricity industry with 79 units of turbines of about 6,000mw installed capacity as at 20-06 is having 4,000mw as available capacity and below 2,250mw as current operational capacity as at the beginning of 2008
He said the workshop was designed to help Nigerian electricity utilities and companies improve the performance of their power plants.
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