Power sector incurred N65.6bn loss in March —Report

The Nigerian power sector incurred losses totalling N65.56 billion last month owing to challenges ranging from inadequate gas supply to poor distribution and transmission facilities, data from the Advisory Power Team (APT) in the Office of the Vice President has shown.

According to the statistics, dearth of gas was the main reason for limited power generation in March.

An estimated loss of N2.21 billion was recorded on the first day of the month when just an average of 4,014 megawatt hours/hour was sent out, while 4,516MW could not be generated because of unavailability of gas.

The power sector posted its largest loss of N2.23 billion on 23rd March when an average of 3,988 MWh/hour was sent out, the APT report noted.

However, the lowest loss of N1.81 billion was reported on 14th March when 3,776 MWh/h was the average energy supplied.

The highest average energy supplied to consumers was 4,361MWh/h, attained on 16th March when the power sector posted N1.85bn loss.

Read also: Buyers dump Nigeria’s oil despite price cut

The lowest average energy sent out was 3,345Mh/h on 24 March, when a loss of N2.46 billion was reported.

According to the Nigerian Electricity System Operator, Nigeria’s total generated power as of 6pm on Tuesday was 4,284.3MW relative to the 3,541MW recorded on Friday.

Out of the country’s 27 power plants including the four build under the National Integrated Power Project, 6 (Sapele, Olorunsogo, Ihovbor, Gbarain, AES, and ASCO) are not generating electricity.

Nigeria’s installed generating capacity is 12,910.40MW; available capacity is 7,562.60MW while the wheeling capacity stands at 8,100MW.

The peak generation ever attained by the country is 5,375MW.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now