Nebo blames poor electricity supply on vandalism, gas shortage

• …pegs current grid at 3068MW

By Etuka Sunday

The Minister of Power Prof. Chinedu Nebo yesterday blamed the current poor electricity supply across the country on vandalism and gas supply shortage in the last two weeks.

Nebo while briefing newsmen on the current state of power in the country however pegged current grid electricity generation at 3,068megawatts.

“As at yesterday (Monday), it was 3300mw and this morning (Tuesday) it is 3068mw that is about 3000mw.”

He attributed the power dip from 4248mw in February this year to the 3000mw to vandalism of various gas pipelines leading to a resurfacing gas supply constraint to the thermal generation stations.

The affected infrastructure according to Nebo include, Alakiri-Onne LBVS which was blasted this March leading to adversely impacting on gas supply to industries.

“Recent vandalism of the Trans-Forcados gas infrastructure where 200 million standard cubic feet (scf) of gas is being lost resulting in the loss of 800mw of power; similar case was recorded during the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline Station (ELPS) vandalism that took 7 months to fix.”

“There have been similar attacks on Trans Niger with a loss of 120 million scf of gas and a loss of 500MW from the Afam VI IPP. This pipeline is vandalized for bunkering about twice every month.”

“The temporary shutdown of the Chevron gas plant this month contributed to the low peak generation of 2,672MW on March 12, 2014,” Nebo added.

Other factors include the collapse of 1e towers at on the Sapele/Delta 330kv transmission line that occurred earlier in March. Its repair cost he said is an estimated N600 million to be fixed within six months.

Nebo also mentioned the Osogbo burnt 150MVA transmission transformer in Osun state, and the hacking of 3 towers in Ibuzo in Delta state. He noted that the hydropower plants are down due to ongoing maintenance.

“The hydropower units at Kainji are, for the first time since commissioning in the 1960s, being rehabilitated with funding from the World Bank. Some of the major components of the shiroro plant are also being rehabilitated thus reducing the plant by about 300MW,” he said.

The minister disclosed that there is a projected additional 295mscf of gas to be available by June 2014 and another 370 mscf by year end to actualise government’s generation target.

He said that the President recently approved the reconstitution of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Gas-to-Power to be chaired by the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) and made up of power, petroleum resources and finance ministries.

He said they would work to identify and ensure that all the interventions to deliver gas to the nation’s power plants are done on time.

While assuring of government’s effort to fixing the affected infrastructure in the shortest time, Nebo called on electricity ‘customers’, the press and other stakeholders to join in the fight against infrastructural vandalism.

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil described vandalism of power facilities as infrastructure terrorism, therefore advised the media to sensitise communities on how to safeguard power infrastructure in their locale.