Minister of Power regrets, explains power outages.

[FMINigeria]

                        A statement from the Office of the Minister Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo has expressed "deep concern" over "the recent disruptions in the nation's power supply situation which included some incidences of total or partial system collapse and loss of supply to some States."  The Minister stated that "Since this comes against the backdrop of recent gains in power generation across the country, it has become necessary to shed more light on the development."

The Minister explained the loss of power in Bayelsa State stating that, "the loss of power supply to Bayelsa State on May 17, 2013 was caused by the collapse of a terminal tower following a severe tropical rainstorm."

Prof. Nebo said, the Ministry and its concerned agency, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) promptly mobilized a very reputable and competent contractor who have commenced work and effectively restored one of the lines by the end of June 1, 2013; and promised that "A permanent restoration of the transmission is expected to be completed by the same contractor in about 40 days."

Similarly, the Minister explained that the recent loss of power to some parts of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara States and Niamey in Niger Republic "was also as a result of rain storm leading to the collapse of three units of 330kV towers"; and promised that "The Ministry is expediting the restoration of supply by utilizing spare towers already available to the TCN."  He however, expressed regrets that "due to the impact of the damage on the foundations of the affected towers, the timeline for the full restoration of supply to the affected areas is end of June 2013."

The statement from the Minister further said that, deterioration in service delivery which also occurred on Friday, 24 th May, 2013 was "caused by a cascaded trip on the main 330kV transmission lines in the South West axis of the national grid.  With the loss of significant amount of transmission capacity, a total system collapse eventually occurred.   Unfortunately, this sad event also coincided with the ongoing repairs taking place at the Ughelli Power plant, hence the prolonged delay in restoring the system."

The other recent system collapse which occurred at Egbin Power plant was also explained "as a result of system disturbances that led to the tripping of the Egbin power plant resulting in the loss of about 25% of the current generation capacity."

The Minister further noted that such disturbances to the national supply systems usually peak at the commencement of the rainy season across the country.   He attributed this to "our geographical peculiarities"; and posited that "The Ministry is fully aware of the constraints and limitations of the nation's transmission network but wishes to assure Nigerians that the Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc is repositioned and being funded to meet with the expectations and requirements."

Prof. Nebo gave further details of the step taken to address the power outages thus: "At the technical level, a high level Technical Investigative Panel, headed by Engr. F. M. A. Olapade, FNSE, a retired Director of Electrical Inspectorate, Ministry of Power, has been set up to investigate these recent power outages.  The Investigative Panel is expected to submit its report in two weeks."

He assured the nation and other power users in Nigeria that "Government is poised to ensure that normalcy is not only restored within the shortest possible time but also that the strategic plan for mitigating any future deterioration in power supply is comprehensively pursued and implemented especially building on the recent gains which have seen both power generation and transmission rise to higher levels."

The Minister also said that the "average peak power generation for the month of May, 2013 was at 4,225 MW, which is a slight decrease from 4,518 MW recorded in April, 2013."

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria