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The national power grid will collapse if electricity generation hits 6,000 megawatts, the President of Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Kunle Olubiyo, has said.
Nigeria’s highest quantum of electricity ever generated on its national grid was 5,802MW, which was generated on March 1, 2021, and was evacuated at a frequency of 50.09 hertz.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria had stated at the time that this quantum of electricity was transmitted to power distributors, adding that the figure was higher than the previous peak by 186.20MW.
“TCN successfully transmitted an enhanced peak generation of 5,801.6MW at 9:30 pm on March 1, 2021. The peak generation was transmitted at a frequency of 50.09Hz. This value is higher than the 5,615.4MW recorded on February 28, 2021, by 186.20MW,” TCN stated.
Since then, power generation on the grid had continued to fluctuate between 4,000MW and 5,000MW, despite the increasing demand for electricity by the over 200 million people in Nigeria.
On Friday, for instance, figures obtained by our correspondent from the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja showed that the quantum of electricity generated on the national grid was 4,962.7MW as of 6.00 am.
But amid calls for an increase in power generation, the NCPN president revealed that the national grid would collapse should it get up to 6,000MW of electricity from power generation companies.
He explained that regulatory inconsistencies coupled with the weak infrastructure in the sector were shrinking the electricity-carrying capacity of the national grid.
“Over the years, due to regulatory flip-flops and weakness, Nigeria has not been able to surpass 5,800MW of electricity. In fact, if at any point we decide to do 6,000MW, the grid as a monolithic structure will collapse,” Olubiyo stated.
Various updates from the sector showed that Nigeria’s power grid collapsed about seven times last year. It collapsed on September 25, 2022, when power generation on the system crashed from over 3,700MW to as low as 38MW.
On July 20, 2022, Nigeria’s power grid saw the sixth collapse in 2022, while on June 13, The PUNCH reported a grid collapse.
The nation’s power system collapsed twice in March and twice again in April last year.
Power generation on the grid had continued to fluctuate due to various concerns such as gas constraints, water management challenges, and gas pipeline vandalism, among others.
To address these challenges, Olubiyo tasked the incoming administration to give priority to the power sector, stressing that this was among the key demands of Nigerians and various business entities.
“As far as the power sector is concerned and the end-users or the public is concerned, the major priority of the in-coming administration should be energy security.
“Nigeria is one of the leading members of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and it is quite abnormal and a global embarrassment that in the midst of abundant reserves of gas, crude oil and all other variables that make the energy economy, Nigeria still lacks adequate energy,” Olubiyo stated.
According to him, gas-to-power is very crucial as the mainstay of the economy.
The power expert further pointed out that the 5,000MW being shared by over 200 million citizens in Nigeria was grossly inadequate when compared to the acceptable standards globally.
“So, the major focus of the incoming administration should be energy security for Nigeria, because the United Nations benchmark is 1,000MW for a population of one million people,” Olubiyo stated.
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