Fashola fails as Nigeria's power supply drops by 624MW in three days.

Fashola fails as Nigeria's power supply drops by 624MW in three days. 

The incompetence of the Nigerian Minister of Power, Babatunde Fashola, to effectively manage the sector,  has been demonstrated by the slumping of Nigeria’s power supply  by 623.76 megawatts in three days. This has worsened the rationing that electricity distribution companies have been subjecting consumers to in recent days.

The drop in the country’s electricity generation has caused reduction in load allocation from the national grid to Discos.

Electricity generated on Thursday, February 25, stood at 3,601.78MW, down from 4,245.53MW on February 22, according to data obtained from the Presidential Task Force on Power and Federal Ministry of Power.

Power supply to households and businesses across the country dropped on Thursday to 3,531.88MW from 4,155.64MW on Monday.

On Wednesday, electricity generation was 3,697.31MW, while 3,625.42MW was sent out that day, the data showed.

The country nation achieved its peak generation of 5,074.70MW on February 2, when 4,541.85MW was generated and 4,447.88MW was sent out.

Electricity supply had on February 14, dropped to 3,485MW, out of the 3,558.39 generated that day, according to data from the Ministry of Power.

Eko Electricity Distribution Plc on Friday explained the reason for the current power rationing and intermittent outage being experienced in areas under its coverage in the past few weeks.

The company, in a statement signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Idemudia Godwin, said the power supply instability was partly due to inadequate bulk electricity load allocation to the company from the national grid.

It said this arose from a drop in the national generation level as a result of incessant acts of vandalism on gas pipelines and transmission towers.

Eko Disco said the situation was not limited to the company’s coverage areas alone, adding that all parts of the country were affected since the problem had to do with low generation level.

It said the situation had led to acute power rationing in all areas within the company’s operational territory.

According to the statement, areas worst hit by the resultant power rationing include Surulere, Lekki, Ajah, Ibeju, Mushin, Apapa, Yaba and their environs.

EKEDP appealed to all its customers to bear with the situation, assuring them that it was doing all within its powers to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of available power to all customers pending the time there would be a significant improvement in the national power generation level.

According to the statement, the company’s customer help lines will be available on a 24-hour basis to receive complaints from customers and attend to same with dispatch. This is in addition to all the customer care centres which operate from 8am to 5pm.

“Customers having localised faults that are outside the general power rationing are enjoined to contact the customer care unit of the business district covering their areas or the central customer care centre at the Marina Headquarters of the company,” it said.