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Blackout lingers, as TCN begins to operate national grid in secrecy

By Sulaimon Salau
13 April 2016   |   12:35 am
The age-long secrecy operated in the power sector may have begun to manifest again, as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) shut the power generation and distribution updates against the yearning public.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company

Eko Electricity Distribution Company

The age-long secrecy operated in the power sector may have begun to manifest again, as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) shut the power generation and distribution updates against the yearning public.

The Guardian learnt that TCN’s Nigeria Electricity System Operator suddenly restricted its website www.nsong.org from the public, particularly the media after the system collapse that threw the whole nation into darkness recently.

Nigerians have however continued to groan under outages, with hopes of improved supply fading away by the day.
As complains and lamentations increases from the consumers’ end, the TCN which manages the national grid system has however resorted to keeping the public away from updates in the power grid system.

The Guardian learnt that TCN’s sister firm, Nigeria Power System Operator suddenly restricted its website www.nsong.org from the public, particularly the media after the system collapse that threw the whole nation into darkness on Thursday.

The website is well known for frequent update on power generation status and how energy generated is being shared among the11 Distribution Companies (Discos).

The web page is currently restricted with the introduction of username and password, which is not released to the public.
When contacted, the TCN spokesperson, Clement Ezeolisah, denied knowledge of the restriction saying: “I don’t think so. Our website should be open to the public, if there are very important information that the general public wants to know, that is where they will get it, so it should not be restricted.

Last data from the country’s Electricity System Operator revealed that all the Discos received zero Mega Watt (MW) when the grid collapsed last week.

Notwithstanding the restoration of the grid after about three hours, Distribution Companies (DISCOs) has continued to receive abysmally low allocation, which worsened the power situation across the country.

For instance, out of the 450MW that was due Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, the Disco only got about 50MW when the situation began to improve. Before the collapse, AEDC got an allocation of 257.97MW and the nationwide generation level stood at 2,243.2MW.

Officials from the Federal Ministry of Power had attributed the persistent fall in electricity generation to vandalism of gas pipelines and destruction of vital infrastructure in the industry by miscreants.

A record generation peak of 5074.7mw and the highest maximum daily energy wheeled nationwide of 109,372mwh were earlier attained on Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

Meanwhile, the NNPC said a total of 664 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) was delivered to the gas fired power plants in the month of February 2016 to generate an average power of about 3,065 MW compared with March 2015 to February 2016 average gas supply 703 mmscfd and power generation of 3,013 MW.

“From the 1,029.03mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in February 2016, about 664.03mmscfd of gas representing 64.53 per cent was used for Gas-Fired power plants while the balance of 365.00mmscfd or 35.47 per cent was supplied to other industries. Similarly, for the period of March 2015 to February 2016 an average of 1,059.12mscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market comprising of an average of 703.38mmscfd or (66.41 per cent) as gas supply to the power plants and 355.74mmscfd or (33.59 per cent) as gas supply to industries,” it stated.

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