Power supply in Nigeria drops by 1,647MW

POWER supply in the country has dropped by 1,647.88 megawatts from 4,447.88MW achieved on February 2, thereby worsening the rationing that the electricity distribution companies have been subjecting consumers to in recent days.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission said on Tuesday that power supply through the national grid had dropped below 2,800MW due to vandalism of vital electricity facilities.

The nation achieved its peak generation of 5,074.70MW on February 2, when 4,541.85MW was generated and 4,447.88MW was sent out. The drop in generation has caused severe reduction in load allocation from the national grid to the distribution firms.

Since February 27, the Ministry of Power has not updated the data on daily electricity generation and supply, checks by our correspondent on Wednesday showed.

The ministry put the electricity generated on February 27 at 3,601.78MW, out of which 3,531.88MW was sent out. Electricity generated on February 25 stood at 3,601.78MW, down from 4,245.53MW on February 22, according to data obtained from the Presidential Task Force on Power and the Federal Ministry of Power.

Power supply to households and businesses across the country dropped on February 25 to 3,531.88MW from 4,155.64MW on February 22.

The Eko Electricity Distribution Plc had over the weekend gave reasons for the current power rationing and intermittent outages being experienced in areas under its coverage in the past few weeks.

The company, in a statement signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Idemudia Godwin, said the instability in supply was partly due to inadequate bulk electricity load allocation to the company from the national grid.

It said this arose from a drop in the national generation level as a result of incessant acts of vandalism on gas pipelines and transmission towers.

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