Faulty gas plant responsible for low power generation – PHCN

The Managing Director, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Mr. Hussein Labo, has said that the low power generation across the country is due to the ongoing maintenance works at the Utorogun Gas Plant in Delta State.

Labo told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, on Tuesday, that the maintenance works on the plant had led to further drop in power generation and had affected electricity supply.

NAN recalls that the Chief Executive Officer, Egbin Thermal Station, Mr. Mike Uzoigwe, had, on Tuesday, said that power generation from the plant had, dropped from 1,100 megawatts to 500 MW due to insufficient gas to power the turbines.

“We have not received gas supply from the Nigeria Gas Company and the water level is low. The station is at this time unusually witnessing low water level, which has made it impossible to generate the required level of power,’’ he had said.

Labo, however, said that power generation had been fluctuating between 3,100MW and 3,200MW in the last few days.

He said that work on the Utorogun Gas Plant had affected gas supply to the Omotosho, Olorunsogo, Egbin, Geregu, Shiroro and Delta power stations.

“The Utorogun Gas Plant was shut down for maintenance work, which l hope in the next one to two weeks from now, will be back to normal,’’ the managing director said.

Labo said that the low level of water at the hydro-power plants had also contributed to the low power distribution across the country.

Power generation at the Egbin Power Plc (Lagos Thermal Power Station) dropped on Sunday from 1,100 megawatts to 500MW, according to the Chief Executive Officer of the station, Mr. Mike Uzoigwe.

Uzoigwe said in Lagos on Monday that the drop was due to insufficient gas supply to run the turbines.

“We have not received gas supply from the Nigeria Gas Company. The hydro power stations are also at this time witnessing unusually low water level, which has made it impossible to generate the required level of power. Egbin power generation has dropped by about 70 per cent,’’ he said.

The station has been suffering from incessant shortage of gas supply and a recent agreement between Pan Ocean and Egbin Power was part of efforts being made to ensure stable gas supply to the plant.

Uzoigwe had earlier said that the management of the company was preparing to rehabilitate plant unit ST-06 of the station to bring power generation up to its installed capacity of 1,320MW.

He said that the station’s management was trying to put funds together to repair the unit.

Uzoigwe added that unit ST-01 of the plant, which also crashed in 2009, was repaired within one year.

He said, “The repairs gulped the whole sum of about N1bn. In the past, this type of swift project execution was unheard of. But with the zeal of the Federal Government to provide steady power supply to the citizenry and with the freehand we had to negotiate the repairs, it was possible to put the unit back into operation in just one year.

“This, indeed, added back 220MW to the national grid. Our job has been made easier and we are proud to say that we have since then had available capacity of 1,080MW.”