Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian power industry has achieved an improved all-time national peak of 5,420.30 megawatts (MW) which was effectively transmitted through the national grid at a frequency of 50.10 hertz (Hz) at 9:15 pm on Tuesday, August 18, 2020.
According to the Transmission Commission of Nigeria (TCN), this is the highest ever recorded in the nation’s power sector to-date, surpassing the previous peak of 5,377.80 MW recorded on August 1, 2020, by 42.50MW.
The improvement in electricity delivery in the nation’s power sector is attributable to the collective effort of all sector players in the value chain.
However, a peak does not translate to a steady power supply, a feat the industry is yet to achieve.
Data from the country’s electricity system operator puts the grid generation installed capacity at 12,954MW, while the available generation capacity is 7,652MW.
The transmission wheeling capacity is put at 8,100MW. However, due to constraints, the TCN cannot roll out more than 6,000MW, as an overload might lead to system collapse since the power distribution companies (DisC0s) also do not have the capacity to take more than 5,000MW.
According to the latest quarterly report of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the regulator said it is working to address the DisCo-TCN interface blockages to free up part of the stranded generation capacity by addressing the technical constraints inhibiting the flow of energy.
