Perfect Storm of Faults and Maintenance Shutdowns Causes Nigerian Power Outage

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info (Sugar Land, Texas)--At a time when Nigerians are being hit by outrageously high electricity high bills, popularly known as 'crazy' bills, by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the claimed 4,000 megawatts (MW) of power distributed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) suffered from a system collapse.

TCN reported that a faulty 330-kilovolt power line from Benin to Onitsha, plus the on-going shutdown of Chevron Nigeria's Escravos gas plant, resulted in the loss of 3,716 MW of power capacity and a nationwide power supply on November 29. Dave Ifabiyi of TCN said engineers and technicians worked to ensure that reliable and steady power was supplied to all Nigerians. Their work on the problem helped restored the power supply by midnight of November 29.

The closure of the Escravos gas plant on the Western Gas Network may reduce the supply by 300 MW for a period of three weeks. But the three-week shutdown was scheduled to allow Chevron to tie in wells and lay pipes for sustainable gas supply to the domestic market and the gas to liquid plant.

At the same time, the shutdown of three of the four units of the country's largest thermal power plant at Egbin for maintenance also was a contributing factor in causing the national power outage.

The National Reforms Commission, which was charged with the regulating the power sector, seems to have lost its grip on the sector as low power voltages are rising steeply, and many Nigerians have been incurring huge costs over the loss of home electrical appliances because of the poor supply of electricity--even as the "crazy" bills are delivered, reports Vanguard.

The majority of businesses in some states have had to use their private generators for their main power supply and use PHCN grid power as back-up, when it is available.

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