POWER GENERATION: 5,357 New Generation Peak Is Verifiable….. TCN

“For nine consecutive days, the grid daily peak has been in excess of 5,000MW from the 5^th of February to the 13^th of February, 2019. After the peak of 5,375MW was recorded on the 7^th of February, the trend of over 5,000MW persisted, and it is noteworthy that the power sector had never had it this good as what usually obtained was a sharp drop after a new peak is attained”.

In order to set the records straight, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, has come out to issue a statement on a report in an Online publication (not Naij News Alert).

The statement which was issued and signed by the General Manager, Public Affairs of the TCN, Ndidi Mbah, it noted that the “attention of the Transmission Company of Nigeria has been drawn to the recent on-line publication by Daily Independent in which Engr. Chris Okonkwo a staff of TCN and the President General of Senior Staff of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSEAC) said that the new peak of 5,375MW, attained on the 7^th of February, 2019 in the industry has “political colouration and should not be taken whole hog”.

According to the GM (Public Affairs) “it is important to note that peak load is a collective effort of the power sector value chain and is verifiable not only from the National Control Center, but also through individual generating companies that send the power into the grid”.

“For nine consecutive days, the grid daily peak has been in excess of 5,000MW from the 5^th of February to the 13^th of February, 2019. After the peak of 5,375MW was recorded on the 7^th of February, the trend of over 5,000MW persisted, and it is noteworthy that the power sector had never had it this good as what usually obtained was a sharp drop after a new peak is attained”.

In the statement, a copy which was made available to Naij News Alert, she disclosed that the daily peak generation for the period stated above is as follows:

DATE	PEAK (MW)
5TH February	5,014.7
6th February	5,147.1
7th February	5,375.0
8th February	5,003.9
9th February	5,001.2
10th February	5,118.8
11th February	5,123.7
12th February	5,211.2
13th February	5,144.5

“This trend of performance”, according to the GM Public Affairs “is unprecedented and is an indication that the incremental power policy of the president Muhammad Buhari’s Administration in the sector is positively impacting the power industry. It also shows that there has been substantial increase in investments in the sector as that is the only way such trend can be sustained”.

“TCN further notes that the power sector has the capacity to attain higher peak levels given the significant increase in generation and transmission capacities to about 7,450MW and 8,100MW respectively”, she stated.

“This feat has been acknowledged across the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) that equally have access to data from the Generating companies and the National Control Center (NCC) which collated and confirmed the new peak of 5,375MW”.

It is noteworthy that in 2017 the sector recorded a peak of 5,224MW which was also successfully transmitted by TCN, on 18th December, 2017.  The power sector had since experienced significant investments and therefore the new peak is not surprising but expected, Mbah stated.

According to her, “the information credited to Engr. Chris Okonkwo therefore, smacks of mischief and feigned ignorance by a disgruntled SSEAC official”.