TCN blames gas supply shortage
By:Obas Esiedesa
The recent rise in energy tariffs by the Nigerian energy Regulatory Commission, NERC, has failed to boost power supplies, with on-grid generation falling to 3,383 Mega Watts as of 3 p.m. yesterday.
News men checks on National Grid data supplied by the System Operator’s Grid Data Portal revealed that 19 power production plants were connected to the grid as of 3pm. Significantly, Azura Power was off-grid despite starting the day with 434MW. Egbin Power, the country’s largest power plant, was at 325MW, significantly lower than its daily normal delivery to the grid of roughly 600MW.
The NERC stated in the new Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO 2024, which went into effect on January 1, that even though the tariff had been hiked, consumers would continue to pay the old rate, with the government covering the difference as a subsidy of N1.6 trillion in 2024.
With increased revenue, NERC required energy distribution companies to off-take 3,963MW as part of their new pricing commitments.
According to the Commission, DisCos were supposed to “secure adequate bilateral contracts to facilitate a seamless exit from NBET’s vesting contract regime” beginning January 1, 2024, and were also “required to mitigate exposures to volumetric energy risk” through these contracts.
NERC stated that effective January 2024, DisCos shall have no recourse to claims revenue shortfall arising from generation shortfall, adding that DisCos are “required to continually procure additional energy volumes to serve their customers and ensure steady migration of customers to higher service bands on account of improved power supply”.
Despite this direction, a review of DisCos’ grid energy offtake revealed that the eleven DisCos had a load allocation of 3,134MW, compared to the 3,963MW mandated by NERC.
Specifically, as of 3 p.m. on Thursday, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company was given 501MW compared to 611MW in the new MYTO, Ikeja Electric was allocated 533MW compared to 603MW in the new MYTO, and Port Harcourt DisCo was allocated 219MW compared to 287MW in the new tariff regime.
In response to the decline in power generation, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) blamed the problem on a lack of gas supplies to power generation businesses.
According to TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, “There has been a gradual decrease in available generation into the grid due to gas constraints to the thermal generating companies, which has impacted the quantum of bulk power available on the transmission grid for onward transmission to the distribution load centers nationwide.”
As a result of the current grid load, the load distributed to the distribution load centers has decreased, as TCN can only transmit what is created. TCN is dedicated to guaranteeing a progressive increase in electricity supply to load centers as gas-powered thermal plants become more available.”
Source:VanguardNGR