IMMINENT BLACKOUT IN NIGERIA AS GENCOS THREATEN TO SHUTDOWN

Electricity generation companies (GENCOs) gave the federal government conditions to meet to avert the complete shutdown of their operations.

“The shutdown will happen automatically because the machines are already giving shutdown signals. It could happen this month. It could happen next month or even tomorrow. Nobody knows exactly when,” Mrs Ogaji warned.

The GENCOs blamed the imminent shutdown of the power generating plants on the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). They said TCN is unable to take and transmit more than 4,000 megawatts (MW) of over 7,000MW available generated electricity.

Reacting to the warning, spokesperson to the Minister of Power, said TCN has embarked on projects to improve transmission capacity.

Considering that available generation is more than demand from DISCOs and other customers, TCN is adjusting the output of power plants. They are also advocating for increased load take-up by DISCOs as an option for load balancing.

However, they identified low power transmission as a result of a persistent directive from TCN’s National Control Centre to GENCOs to generate electricity below optimal capacity. This is a major hindrance to efficient power supply.

She urged the federal government to urgently tackle the transmission challenges. Also to take immediate steps to settle all outstanding payments due to the GENCOs under the N213 billion Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility (NEMSF) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2013.

Also, the GENCOs asked for the outstanding payment for power generated as at January 2015 before the take-off of the Transition Electricity Market (TEM). In addition to the outstanding invoices for power supplied to the national grid between February 2015 and December 2016 with accrued interests.

The other demands included payments for deemed capacity for the period 2013 to date; setting up an effective financing plan after completion of the N701 billion assurance facility to sustain invoices payments until 2021. The government had estimated the power market would become self-sustaining then.

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