GenCos Lose N1.9bn in One Day to Gas Shortage, Others

Electricity Generation Companies (GenCos), which make use of both gas-fired and hydro-stations, have lamented that couldn’t generate an expected 3,347.5 megawatts of electricity on Wednesday due to unavailability of gas.

This led to the estimated N1.9 billion lost by the power sector players on Wednesday due to insufficient gas supply, inadequate distribution and transmission infrastructure.

An energy report by the Advisory Power Team attached to the Office of the Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, disclosed that 220 megawatts of electricity was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure during the period, adding that 400.4 megawatts was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure.

The report also said that the GenCos released an average of 4,140 MegaWatts/Hour of electricity into the national grid on Wednesday.

On sector reform and activities, it said that the dominant constraint for Wednesday was unavailability of gas, adding that the peak generation attained was 4,502.5 megawatts.

Last week, the APT said that the Nigerian power sector lost about N19.15 billion in 10 days due to insufficient gas supply, distribution and transmission infrastructure

According to the report, the losses were recorded from February 5 to 14, 2020. An average of N1.55 billion was lost on February 5, N1.77 billion on February 6, N1.92 billion on February 7 and N1.89 billion was lost on February 8.

The sector also lost an estimated N1.95 billion on February 9, N2.15 billion on February 10, N1.95 billion on February 11, N2 billion on February 12, N2.01 billion on February 13 and lastly N1.96 billion on February 14.