Minister of State for Energy (Power) Mrs. Fatimah Ibrahim, yesterday in Abuja announced that electricity generation had plunged by about 2,130 megawatts (MW) to 2,300MW.
But industry sources indicated that her statement contradicts the amount of electricity generated by the few functioning power plants nationwide which has hovered at 3,000MW for the past four to six months.
By implication if generation has fallen by 2,130MW, available capacity will be in the region of 800MW, effectively meaning the country will experience near total blackout.
The issue of near total blackout gained currency yesterday, when a complete system failure plunged the entire nation into the dark for three hours. By evening power was gradually restored to certain parts of the country.
The minister disclosed this during a press conference that was also attended by the Minister of State for Energy (Gas), Mr. Emmanuel Odusina and the Minister of Information and Commu-nication, Mr. John Odey.
Ibrahim attributed the drop mainly to low water levels in the lakes of hydro power plants and inadequate gas supply.
She said: “Overall generation dropped by 830MW due to the low water level while an additional 1,300MW is constrained by inadequate supply of gas from the IOCs (international oil companies) and due to other delivery constraints.”
Ibrahim described this as an “inauspicious coincidence” because the gas-fired stations were expected to shore up power availability during the low season of the hydroelectric power plants.
“The power utility, PHCN, in collaboration with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have for some time managed to sustain a generation level of about 3,000MW from generation assets that are capable of producing about 4,500M.
“However, generation has in the last few weeks further dipped to about 2,300MW principally due to the low level of water in the lakes of the hydro plants and inadequate supply of gas to the thermal power stations.
“The situation is worsened by the huge deficit in gas generation and therefore a need to push water management to its limit,” she stated.
Unconfirmed sources said there was actually a system collapse, leading to the near-total absence of electricity but the power minister stated that risk mitigation measures were being adopted by the government to accelerate the exploitation of the massive hydro potentials available in the country, “thereby enhancing energy security.”
Explaining the shortfall in gas supply, the minister in charge of that portfolio, Odusina, attributed it to the inability of Shell to sufficiently process wet gas.
He said: “Shell supplies gas to the Escravos-Lagos pipeline. In that axis, Shell can supply close to 235 million standard cubic feet (mscf) of gas a day. They can even supply more. But the problem they have been having recently is that the gas they supply to that axis is wet gas.
�You cannot send the wet gas to the pipeline due to the accumulation of condensates. It will affect the turbine. What should be sent to the pipeline is dry gas.
�It is because of wet gas, that is why we are having problems with pigging on the line and all the problems associated with wet gas on the line.�
Indicating that Shell was now working to upgrade its facilities at Utorogu to be able to remove water, condensates and LPG, he said at the end of the exercise, there would be a marked improvement in a week.
“Maybe by the end of next week, maybe by Wednesday or Thursday, they should have been able to supply a high percentage of dry gas through the Escravos-Lagos pipeline. That will put us in a comfortable zone with regard to power supply,” Odusina said.
He added: “As of today, the percentage of gas that Shell is sending is not what NGC is sending to the line. Maybe NGC is sending 30 to 40 per cent of the dry gas; maybe Shell is sending 235mscf/d and you are using maybe 40 percent of that. That is why we are not getting enough gas for the Escravos-Lagos pipeline.”
Chevron, on the other side, is supplying 175mscf/d of the specified dry gas, he said, which it is “even trying to increase to about 200mscf.”
According to him, “The whole of what they send to us is what we send to the Escravos � Lagos pipeline. But because the gas that comes from Utorogu is wet gas, that is why we don�t have enough gas for Egbin and Geregu, in order to generate power. But within a short time, this problem will be addressed.�
The thing, he said, is that although the past administration tried its best to put plants in place, “there was no deliberate effort to address where the gas is coming from. And that is what we are doing now.�
He therefore appealed to Nigerians to bear with the government. �We�re going to go on a road show to attract investors worldwide, because this is a project that will cost close to $30 billion. We want investors to come and invest in this country. Let them come and invest in our power generation and in our gas infrastructure,� the gas minister said.
May32008