Minister of Power, Prof Barth NNaji
Electricity supply has stabilised at 3,700 megawatts, after a recent system collapse of the facilities of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), which resulted in almost complete darkness across the country for three days.
Electricity supply has stabilised at 3,700 megawatts, after a recent system collapse of the facilities of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), which resulted in almost complete darkness across the country for three days.
PHCN suffered the system failure after Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) closed the Utorogun Gas Plant in Ughelli, Delta State, following the discovery of “sabotage leak” at the gas pipeline.
The incident disrupted gas supply to PHCN’s gas-fired power plants, resulting in substantial drop of electricity supply across the country.
The Utorogun Gas Plant and Chevron’s Escravos Gas Plant are the main sources of gas supply to the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which supplies gas to PHCN’s gas-fired plants across the country.
The gas plant, which is a joint venture between Shell, NNPC, Total and Eni SpA, (Agip), also supplies gas to industrial users.
Shell spokesman, Mr. Tony Okonedo, had said a pipeline leak forced the oil giant to shutdown the gas plant, which supplies PHCN with 270 million standard cubic feet per day of gas (mscf/d). But Shell later reopened the plant, while investigation was being conducted to find out the cause of the leak.
“SPDC today reopened Utorogu Gas Plant after shutting it down two days ago following a leak on the Utorogu–UPS trunk-line. The line evacuates condensate from the facility. SPDC has isolated the leak point for subsequent repair work,” Okonedo said.
THISDAY gathered that the re-opening of the gas plant and the resumption of normal gas supply to power plants has stabilised electricity supply at 3,700mw.
Confirming this development at the weekend, the Managing Director of PHCN, Mr. Hussein Labo, however told THISDAY that the figure fluctuates periodically. “This thing (generation) changes every time, but it is at 3,700mw,” he said.
The country’s electricity supply had peaked at 3,800mw for few hours on August 2010, before it started the current fluctuations. Before last week’s system collapse, PHCN had earlier recorded 11 system collapses this year, whereas for the corresponding periods in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the figures were 36, 33 and 27, respectively.
General Manager of the National Control Centre (NCC) at Oshogbo in Osun State, Mr. Jonathan Ndiagwalukwe, attributed system disturbance to frequent tripping of critical lines, stressing that most of the trippings are traceable to “fouling of the line conductors by vegetation.”
He noted that automatic frequency regulation, which was introduced in January 2011, had helped to improve system stability and substantial reduction in system collapses. “In fact, about 90 per cent of the system collapses we have recorded this year had tripping of transmission line as the immediate cause,” he said.
The general manager also stated that the restoration of the system after a collapse was one of the most difficult tasks the system controllers perform, adding that only Delta Power Station can “black start” the system.
Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, had vowed to hold “someone in PHCN” accountable any time the ailing power utility company experienced system collapse. However, the latest system collapse was beyond PHCN as it was related to inadequate gas supply by the NNPC.
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