A total of 2,495.3 megawatts of electricity was not utilised nor distributed by power distribution companies in one week, despite the demand for electricity nationwide, industry data obtained from the Federal Government’s power company on Sunday showed.
In the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s latest report on national grid performance: TCN-Discos Interface from April 2 to April 8, 2022, the government-owned firm revealed that some Discos failed to utilise over 2,400MW of electricity during the period despite the fact that they were nominated for the electricity load.
Although the report indicated that some Discos took and distributed excess load than they nominated for during the review week, it was observed that others failed to distribute a huge quantum of electricity daily, amidst the low supply across the country.
The report showed the maximum load nomination by each Disco, their approved Multi-Year Tariff Order allocation, their actual consumption, the quantum of unutilised load by some of them, as well as the excess load taken by others.
Nigeria’s 11 Discos include Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola, and there have been a series of complaints about the poor delivery of electricity by these firms.
It was observed that on April 2, for instance, a total of 373.97MW of power was unutilised by five power distribution companies, as Eko did not utilise 118.29MW; Ibadan, 169.77MW; Ikeja, 63.19MW; Kano, 13.18MW; and Port Harcourt, 9.54MW.
On April 3, six power distributors failed to utilise 189.84MW. They include Eko, 26.99MW; Enugu, 1.65MW; Ibadan, 44.85MW; Ikeja, 51.66MW; Kano, 48.35MW and Port Harcourt, 16.34MW.
The number of Discos with unutilised electricity load increased to eight on April 4, as a total of 309.2MW was not distributed to customers across the country by the power firms.
Eko Disco did not utilise 27.10MW; Enugu, 78.18MW; Ibadan, 60.39MW; Ikeja, 46.03MW; Jos, 23.74MW; Kaduna, 5.35MW; Kano, 50.28MW; and Port Harcourt, 18.13MW.
The TCN report obtained by our correspondent in Abuja further showed that on April 5, seven Discos failed to utilise 238.44MW of electricity and they include Eko, 44.49MW; Enugu, 20.05MW; Ibadan, 35.11MW; Ikeja, 67.39MW; Jos, 4.12MW; Kaduna, 9.86MW; and Kano, 57.22MW.
The highest quantum of unutilised power during the review week was recorded on April 6, as seven power distributors failed to utilise nor distributed 596.07MW of electricity to consumers.
Benin Disco did not utilise 40.42MW; Eko, 200.59MW; Enugu, 66.58MW; Ibadan, 46.54MW; Ikeja, 199.05MW; Jos, 19.50MW; and Kano, 23.39MW.
It was also observed that on April 7, seven Discos could not utilise 424.63MW. The Discos include Benin, 4.58MW; Eko, 127.86MW; Enugu, 69.65MW; Ibadan, 39.95MW; Ikeja, 114.12MW; Jos, 30.04MW; and Kano, 42.43MW.
The report further showed that on April 8, six Discos failed to utilise 363.15MW of electricity, as the unutilised load of Benin Disco was 42.91MW; Eko, 86.97MW; Enugu, 30.94MW; Ibadan, 112.12MW; Ikeja, 89.28MW; and Kano, 0.93MW.
Power supply in Nigeria had been poor over the years but grew worse in the past weeks following the collapse of the national electricity grid, which occurred about four times within the space of one month.
Despite the series of grid collapse, the latest report on the grid performance from TCN revealed that the power situation might have been further worsened by the over 2,400MW of electricity that was not utilised by Discos within one week.
