Darker days ahead in Nigeria: Power supply is going to get worse, much worse

In the past few days, Lagosians have decried the poor state of power supply in the state.

Many areas in the mega city have not seen light in the past two to three days, which has raised questions over the NOI Polls reports in the month of August which stated that Nigerians voted to have had an improvement in power supply. continue...

YNaija paid a visit to a power station in Surulere to enquire the reason for shortage in power.

An official at the station, who chose to speak on the condition of anonymity said that the poor state of power supply wasn’t only a Lagos problem but national.

“The poor state of power supply in the past few days is not only a Lagos issue. It is felt nationwide because its from a major power station in the country,” he said.

The official who brought to our notice that they had no light and had resorted to using a generator set said that; “shortage of gas supply at the Egbin power plant is the reason why Nigerians are not seeing light”.

When asked when the issue will be resolved, he said that Nigerians only had to express hope as he had no idea.

“The fault is being worked on. As for now, I cannot tell you when it will be resolved but we are hopeful. So we all need to have patience and hope that the situation is resolved in time.”

According to the power minister, Chinedu Nebo, the ongoing strike by members of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers; the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria; and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) branches have resulted in the nationwide power outage as major power stations have been cut off from gas supply.

Nebo who said that Nigeria in recent weeks recorded a peak in Power generation at 4,500 megawatts, with a spinning reserve of about 300MW, decried the current setback arising from the workers’ action, which he said had curtailed supply of gas to power stations and reduced power generation.

The General Manager, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Lagos Region, Oyeleke Adeoye, had lamented the lack of adequate funding for facilities and manpower; inadequate operational and maintenance vehicles; lack of safety facilities such as fire-fighting trucks and absence of redundant lines as a major problem also haunting the power sector.

source: Ynaija