Power distribution companies say they have capacity to take and distribute 6,288.96 megawatts of electricity, refuting the Federal Government’s claim that the Discos can only handle 5,000MW.

According to them, the capacity of Discos to distribute about 6,300MW was confirmed in a study conducted by the country’s power System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, at a recent power sector stakeholders’ meeting, stated that power generation in the country had increased to 7,000MW and that distributors could only take about 5,000MW, leaving 2,000MW stranded.

But in a document obtained from the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors in Abuja on Wednesday, the power firms stated that their capacity to distribute power was way beyond the minister’s claim, but stressed that the capacity was subject to the stability of the country’s transmission grid.

The association also argued that no 2,000MW of electricity was stranded as a result of distribution network limitations. It said, “The sector has an estimated available capacity of 7,000MW, of which, on a daily basis, 2,000MW remains constrained by lack of gas, transmission line frequency challenges and hydro constraints.”

Source: The Punch