Do not fear if the power supply has dropped substantially in your area of residence or business, you are on the receiving end of a necessary load shedding exercise initiated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The custodian of power supply around the nation, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has stated as there will be load-shedding exercise nationwide to maintain the stability of the country's power grid.
The load-shedding was caused by the gas line rupture of June 15th and technical issues at Shell's gas wells on June 16th, which resulted in the sharp drop of 1,087.6MW from the national gird. Fortunately, no collapse of the power grid was recorded.
The six power stations which are unable to generate power as a result of the gas line rupture on June 15th are Ihovbor, Azura, Omotosho gas, Geregu gas, Olorunsogo gas, Sapele and Egbin Power Station. Afam VI power station was the one shut down to enable Shell to resolve its gas well issues.
These latest two-pronged issues bedeviling the power sector necessitated the adoption of load-shedding by the TCN because the 1,087.6MW decline to the national grid has made the transmission system fragile.
The only option open to avert a total nationwide power system collapse is the undesirable load-shedding, this will ensure that what is available is allocated and spread across to create balance and prevent grid instability.
Why embark on nationwide load-shedding if the national grid didn't shut down? It's on record that the nation's power grid is weak and obsolete, an overload could easily trigger a national collapse.
A record of past system collapses reveals, 22 system collapses in 2013 with some lasting for 24 hours.
The incessant collapse led then former Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo to set up a panel to investigate the causes of such collapses.
The recommendations following the investigation revealed the system collapses were reduced to nine in 2014 and just six in 2015.
The building of a parallel ‘National Grid Backbone’ was recommended in 2014, and also that the 'Baseline of Daily Load' allocation to DISCOs should not be more than 3,500mw until the infrastructure was strengthened.
The solution to the national grid problem may not be far away from the recommendation until today.
Where the Tunde Fashola led Ministry of Power should be commended is in the area of post-privatization support to Nigeria's various GENCOs and DISCOs, stakeholders in the sector would have shut off supply long ago with the incessant issues dogging the nation's power industry.
The national grid engineers are working hard to maintain the stability of the grid, pending the completion of repairs of the ruptured gas pipelines by the Nigeria Gas Company and the restoration of full gas supply to the power stations affected.
I hope this is resolved soon. We have capable hands at the helm of affairs
ReplyDeleteThe Buhari machinery won't fail to deliver good results. Good thing they've announced this...
DeleteLove it when people can take responsibility and be proactive. But of course, this could only be possible in this Buhari regime.
ReplyDeleteGood to know they made an announcement on time about this. Looking forward to a quick resolution as the silent Buhari machine is known to achieve results
ReplyDeleteBUhari has done it so well that people now find it necessary to be accountable for what they do.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we have agencies coming out to give reports.
Something that has never happened in a while in NIgeria