BY ONYEKA AJUMOBI ONOCHIE
Doubts have greeted the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s claim of National Grid attaining new generation peak of 5,375MW on Thursday, 7th February, 2019, at 21.00hrs.
Shooting the first salvo was, amazingly, a staffer of the company, Engr. Chris Okonkwo, who is also the President-General of Senior Staff of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSEAC). In an online publication few days ago, Okonkwo said the new peak of 5,375MW, in the industry has “political coloration and should not be taken whole hog.”
Okonokwo, who seems to be echoing the mindset of many a Nigeria, against the backdrop of continued epileptic power supply, bared his mind in a Daily Independent Online publication soon after the TCN’s press interview on Monday.
But reacting to the SSEAC boss on Thursday, TCN’s General Manager (Public Affairs), Ndidi Mbah, insists that the new peak is open to verification to determine who was right or wrong.
She said, “First of all, 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 5th of February to the 13th of February, 2019. After the peak of 5,375MW was recorded on the 7th 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.”
Giving a blow-by-blow account of the daily peak generation for the period under review, she said 5,014.7MW were generated on February 5; 5,147.1MW on February 6; 5,375.0MW on February 7; 5,003.9MW on February 8; 5,001.2MW on February 9; 5, 118.8MW on February 10; 5, 123.7MW on February 11; 5211.2MW on February 12; and 5, 144.5MW on February 13, all in 2019.
“This trend of performance is unprecedented and is an indication that the incremental power policy of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the sector is positively impacting the power industry,” she said, stressing that “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.”
Mbah noted that TCN 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.
This feat, she emphasized, has been acknowledged across the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) that equally has access to data from the generating companies and the National Control Center (NCC) which collated and confirmed the new peak of 5,375MW.
She continued, “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.”
According to her, information credited to Engr. Chris Okonkwo, therefore, smacks of mischief and feigned ignorance by a disgruntled SSEAC official.
*Photo: Raji Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing