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Despite poor electricity supply, 1,671mw generated, enough to power over 1m homes wasted

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Nigeria enters deal with Siemens to revamp power sector

Despite millions of Nigerians groaning in darkness, a total of 1,671.61 megawatts (mw) meant for electricity consumers were unutilised by distribution companies (Discos) between 4th January and 7th February 2021.

Ripples Nigeria analysis of the daily load summary released by the Transmission Company of Nigeria has shown.

The unutilised electricity generated during the period could have powered around 1.08 million homes using Eskom 1mw=650 homes estimation.

Unutilised power simply means electricity generated during the period did not get to Nigerian homes and offices.

Breakdown of the figure showed that from 4th to 10th January, DisCos collectively unutilised 732.37mw of electricity, the biggest during the period under review.

From 11th-17th January the figure dropped to 305.10mw while from 25th- 31st the figure was 270.37mw.

While from 1st to 7th in February, 11 DisCos collectively unutilised 363.77 mw.

READ ALSO: Proposed electricity tariff increase will not affect the poor —NERC

In the past it had been explained that the unutilized power was as a result of the gap between the generation capacity of Generating Companies (GenCos) and the capacity of DisCos.

Similarly, the daily operational report statistics for 3rd March 2021, from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, revealed that on Wednesday the country generated 5,747mw.

Although this represents an improvement from where the country was some years back, Nigeria is still far from the current peak electricity demand forecasted at 28,850mw. This explains the shortage in power supply in the country.

As at Wednesday, Nigeria’s grid generation installed capacity remains at 12,954mw, expected to produce 7,652mw of electricity daily.

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