Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Federal Government has given reasons why the power sector lost over N530 billion last year, blaming it all on operational constraints arising from shortage of gas, poor transmission, weak distribution network and water reserves factor.
The Power Advisory team of the Vice President which revealed this in Abuja, noted that given the loss, the industry was set to experience tougher times in 2019. But the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in its data, said that the total electricity generated in the first quarter of 2018 was 8,511,481 megawatts/hour, (about 2 per cent) less than the 8,705,606MWh generation recorded in the last quarter of 2017 whereas the average utilisation rate of the total available generation capacity declined by 1.1 per cent from 54.4 per cent recorded in the last quarter of 2017.
Consequently, the total electric energy generated was 8,350,174 MWh – 1.9 per cent less than the level of generation in the first quarter.
The Commission also noted that the utilisation of the total available generation capacity declined by 2.6 per cent due to insufficient gas supply, limited transmission line, poor distribution networks and water management at the hydropower stations.
Furthermore, third-quarter report of the commission showed a further decline in power generation, as the total energy generated stood at 8,077,483 MWh – 3.3 per cent less than the level of generation in the second quarter.
Meanwhile the team had recalled that on March 1, 2017, the Federal Government approved the sum of N701 billion for the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) to pay for the electricity produced by the generation companies (GenCos) to the national grid for the period of two years starting from January 2017 to December, 2018.