Despite the injection of a N701 billion assurance guarantee for gas supply to the power sector, the electricity grid has continued to fluctuate, ending at less than 3,400 megawatts (mw) since the last one month.
The Nigerian System Operator (NSO) daily power report of Monday showed that electricity generation fell to 2,804 mw early on Monday after hitting 4,200mw last Thursday. The Federal Government in May 2017 announced the N701bn assurance guarantee domiciled with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET). The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said it was to be used to offset payment for gas supplied to the thermal plants from January 2017 to 2019 to guarantee more electricity generation.
Payment for gas supplied since January begun since July from the N701bn fund. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Louis Edozien, recently confirmed that payments had been made for gas supplied to the thermal plants for January and February while payment for March and April are being processed.
Despite the payment assurance for gas being handled by the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) however, the lowest power generation daily often drops to 2,800mw and sometimes, below. As at July 19, the national grid fell to 1,191mw with regard to electricity generation, while the highest that day (peak generation) was 4,345mw.
