Power sector recorded ‘N108bn shortfall’ within three months

The power sector recorded a shortfall of N108.652 billion between January and March, according to recent data from the advisory power team in the office of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

The loss was recorded due to water reserves constraints, insufficient gas supply, poor transmission and distribution network.

The data showed that about 2,978 megawatts(mw) of electricity did not get to the national grid within the period under review.

According to the report, power generation companies (GenCos) have been supplied with 53,043 metric million standard cubic feet (mmscf) of gas for the year.

“On March 09, 2019, average energy sent out was 4,181MW (down by 28.25MW from the previous day). 2,295.5MW was not generated due to unavailability of gas. 33.8MW was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 1,226MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure,” the report read.

“The power sector lost an estimated N1,707,000,000 on March 09, 2019 due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.

“The dominant constraint on March 09, 2019 remained unavailability of gas – constraining a total of 2,295.5MW from being available on the grid. Estimated amount lost to insufficient gas supply, distribution, transmission and water reserves to date in 2019 – N100,106,000,000 (One hundred billion one hundred and six million naira only).

“The power sector lost an estimated N1,612,000,000 (One billion six hundred and twelve million naira) on March 08, 2019 due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.”

The report detailed the daily losses due to the constraints. On March 10, it lost an estimated N1.348 billion, N1.506 billion on March 11, N1.432 billion on March 12, N1.612 billion on March 13, N1.283 billion on March 14 and N1.365 billion on March 15.