A daily operational report sourced from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator (SO) website, a sub-agency of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has indicated that power generation peaked at 3,215.2mw on Monday, January 16, 2017 but dropped to 2978.6mw as at 6am Thursday.
Reason given for the drop is not unconnected with an attack launched against pipeline facilities belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) on Tuesday night around Ugheli in Delta State.
Before the downturn, power generation hit the peak as at January 4, when it recorded 4,959mw as against 3,321 as at the end of last year. The 2861.4mw was transferred to the 11 distribution companies across the country.
There has been steady drop in power generation since last traced largely to challenges in accessing gas by generation companies, and vandalism on pipelines and related installations.
Business Hilights recalls that System Operations (SO) function of TCN, which reels out daily power generation and distribution capacity was established as a sector within the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) under the transmission sector.
The main responsibility of the System Operator is to operate the transmission system and the connected installed generation in a safe and reliable manner. SO is also responsible for the overall security and reliability of the grid system, economic dispatch of available generation resources and maintaining system stability.
The department has about seven functional departments namely, Operations/Control, System Planning, SCADA, Communications, Technical Services, Transitional Electricity Market and System Performance.
Efforts of the government in making peace with Niger Delta militants seem to yielding fruits slowly, but experts believe that the recent tour of the region by the Vice president will give more bite to peace process that will not only lead to drop in pipeline vandalism, but power stability.
