The Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos), at the weekend identified low power transmission as a fallout of persistent directives from the National Control Centre (NCC), to Generation Companies to generate electricity below the optimal level, as a major impediment to the nation’s drive to the efficient power supply.
Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Association of Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr. Sunday Oduntan, who made the assertion in a chat with newsmen in Lagos, noted that while DisCos and their umbrella body (ANED) are not interested in any further controversies in the sector, his association will continue to demand sufficient power supply for Nigerians.
“We want Nigerians to know that the current distribution capacity of all the 11 DisCos is 6, 288 Megawatts. This is according to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), stress test that was conducted in 2015.
This is not our figure, this is the figure from the TCN side. Now what we are getting from them is far too low than what we are supposed to be getting.” He said.
Only last week, the Electricity Generating Companies threatened to shut down their plants over repeated directives by the (NCC), to generate below optimal level.
On their part, the GenCos, according to the Executive Secretary of the Association of Power Generation Companies, (APGC), Dr Joy Ogaji, are also facing low capacity utilisation having to operate their plants far from the baseline settings to as low as about 50 per cent of total available power capacity.
Using the month of April as a case study, Ogaji disclosed that on a daily basis, the GenCos had an average capacity of 7, 484 MW, but that the Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN), transmitted only an average of 3985 MW, which is just about 53 percent of the available capacity.
According to ANED, the implication of this trend in power generation is that DisCos “are not able to supply enough power to (our) customers.
Oduntan noted, ‘We are now making Nigerians be aware that shortage of power supply or lack of power is due to TCN constraints and persistent outages from the TCN interface and the GenCos have actually confirmed that.”
The ANED Executive Director then urged the Federal Government to urgently address the issue of transmission bottlenecks in the power sector, noting that it has become a negative development for DisCos’ business, in particular, and Nigerians in general.
“What we are currently having is a suppressed tariff regime that does not cost reflective. It is a tariff calculated on the wrong assumption that by 2018, we would be generating over 7,000 MW. The absence of that level of generation means that we are having more shortfalls in the market. The situation is now far worse than when we are getting far lower than expected from TCN.”
Source: The Sun
