By John Ikani
Poor power supply remains a major problem for many Nigerian homes and businesses following the blackout sparked by the March 15, 2022 collapse of the power grid.
About 1100 megawatts was lost when the grid packed up on March 15 for the 108th time since the power sector was privatized in 2013.
March 15 collapse was the second time the grid will pack up in the last three months, worsening an already existing epileptic power supply.
The Nigerian Government has fingered many factors as responsible for the outage including drop in water level at dams, scheduled maintenance of facilities, vandalisation of gas pipelines as well as issues regarding gas availability and contracts between gas companies and power generating companies.
Although the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) claims to have delivered 3,749.6mw to the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) on 23rd March, 2022, reports from different parts of the country yesterday showed that power supply remained erratic.
The TCN in its Operational Report of 24th March, 2022, put the Peak Generation of the day at 3,920mw and the Lowest Generation at 3,478.7Mw.
Heritage Times gathered that there are ongoing measures to add 2,500mw to the national grid.
Confirming the implementation of one of the steps, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Infrastructure, Mr. Ahmed Zakari, said the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) has signed $50million contract to deliver 125 to 250mmscf of gas to the gas plants of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).
The contract will add 800mw to the national grid, said Zakari.
