About 41 percent of the electricity generated in the country is wasted, the Executive Director Operations of the PHCN Engr. John Ayodele has said.
Speaking at the PHNC/ ICAN Abuja District Workshop, Wednesday, Ayodele said the figure is unacceptable but for now it’s unavoidable because the generation lost has been as a result of the technical hitch while others are as a result of theft of the electrical equipment.
He said the country needs about 8,500mw of electricity to meet President Umar Musa Yar’ adua’s target of 6000mw power supply by December this year.
According to him, at the moment, about 2,800mw to 3,000mw of electricity is generated daily but only 1,800 mw reaches customers.
He said: “From the structure we have on ground if you want to supply 6000mw to the system based on losses we need to generate like 8,500 mw. But what is important is that we need to meet the consumers’ need.
The target is to give Nigerians what they want”.
Engr. Ayodele said the electricity sector is very sensitive and anything could happen along the line.
“System-wide, there will be additional capacity required to meet specific demand of the different Zones to be able to wheel 6,000MW.
Over 90 transmission projects are currently on-going at different locations across the country to evacuate and wheel the projected 6000MW by the end of 2009 and over 10,000MW by 2011.
“At the moment we are generating about 6,000mva (1,800mw), that is not enough to wheel 6000mw but effort are on and I think some of the transformers have started arriving at port.
“Our transmission line can take over 8,000mw. So it is not a problem of line now. Some lines may be weak enough not to carry the load expected where as some are strong to carry more than that.
On aggregate we can wheel power on the 330v but we can’t wheel across because the transformers can’t coup with 6,000mw” But he said between now and December all the lines will be ready.