Electricity generation companies in the country have said their power plants are being forced to operate below their optimal capacity levels. The nation’s total power generation has been hovering between 3,000 megawatts and 3,500MW in recent months. It stood at 3,741.30MW as of 6am on Sunday, according to the Nigeria Electricity System Operator.
The Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies, the umbrella body for the Gencos, Dr Joy Ogaji, attributed the problem to transmission and distribution. She said, “Specifically, generation companies are pinned down by some operational impediments. The frequency of instructions to either increase load or decrease load (ramp up and ramp down) and, in some cases, shut down, has induced damaging stresses to the components of the machines.
According to Ogaji, the generation plants are now being used as regulating power reserve by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, via its subsidiary, the System Operator/NCC, to stabilise the national grid. She noted that experts had prescribed solutions such as procurement of regulating and spinning reserve as well as tools to be developed “to manage the grid to the mandatory free governor mode.” Ogaji however added; “The TCN has refused to put these in place; instead, it is forcing the Gencos to operate outside factory capability.”
Source: The Punch