Fact check beginning from January 2019 to year end on reasons behind poor supplies of electricity across the country has revealed that distorted supply of gas to power plants remains the highest factor amongst others.
Also, the poor supply of gas did not stem from lack of production, but mounting debts owed gas producers because Gencos were finding it difficult in getting their money from Discos, who within the period under review, came up with a strange power purchase model of selective purchase by cutting down projected demands.
Summary of monthly data on gas supply to gas-fired power plants tracked from the report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) showed frustrating payment regime for gas producers.
For instance, gas supply to the plants for June, July, August and September was 751mmscfd, 730mmscfd, 666mmscfd and 595mmscfd, while power generated from the monthly supply was 2,896MW, 2,864MW, 2,462MW and 2,227MW respectively.
Analysis showed that while 820mmscfd volume of gas produced 3,336MW of electricity on the national grid in February, this quantum of power dropped to 2,227MW in September, signifying that 1,109MW of power could not be generated.
In September, the drop in power generation was due to the reduction in gas supply by 225mmscfd to power plants, as gas supply to the plants fell to 595mmscfd in that month.
NNPC noted in the latest monthly report that “A total of 595mmscfd was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of September 2019 to generate an average power of about 2,227MW compared with August 2019 where an average of 666mmscfd was supplied to generate 2,462MW.”
“Out of the 1,074.86mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in September 2019, about 594.56mmscfd of gas, representing 55.32 per cent was supplied to gas-fired power plants, while the balance of 480.30mmscfd or 44.68 per cent was supplied to other industries.
“Similarly, for the period of September 2018 to September 2019, an average of 1,207.86mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market comprising an average of 718.14mmscfd or 59.46 per cent as gas supply to the power plants and 489.72mmscfd or 40.54 per cent as gas supply to industries,” NNPC added.
For the period, September 2018 to September 2019, a total of 3,106.8BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,941.69mmscfd.
“Period-to-date production from joint ventures, production sharing contracts and the National Petroleum Development Company contributed about 69.43 per cent, 21.14 per cent and 9.43 per cent respectively to the total national gas production,” NNPC report averred.
