…As GenCos fail to generate 3,323 megawatts Electricity due to gas shortage***
The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) says the free energy to be supplied for two months is not free by the DisCos, but will be paid for by the Federal Government.
Mr Sunday Oduntan, the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy of ANED, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.
Oduntan said that the DisCos made the clarification due to questions that have arisen around how the cost that will accumulate will be absorbed in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
He said that the DisCos had earlier announced aligning with the federal government and NASS efforts to provide free electricity for two months as a palliative for the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Nigerian electricity consumers.
According to him, the ability for the DisCos to go forward with planned free electricity is subject to the stimulus package being passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by Mr. President.
He said that the palliative seeks to mitigate the economic challenges that Nigerians are being subjected to during this COVID-19 period.
“it is our hope that we do not lose sight of the no-cost reflective tariff challenges that the DisCos continue to suffer under.
“Regardless, we laud President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his government and the National Assembly for this initiative,” the ANED official said.
In the meantime, the Electricity Generation Companies (GenCos) comprising gas-fired and hydro stations said they could not generate 3,323 megawatts of electricity on Wednesday due to unavailability of gas.
This information was made known in a daily energy report by the Advisory Power Team, office of the Vice President, a copy of which was obtained in Abuja on Thursday.
The report also noted that 0 megawatt of electricity was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure during the period.
Similarly, it said that 1,319.8 megawatts was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure.
The report, however, said that the GenCos released an average of 4,002 MegaWatts/Hour of electricity into the national grid on Wednesday.
It said that the electricity sent out by the GenCos was up by 90 68 megawatts from the 3,911 released on Tuesday.
Also read: Electricity: GenCos blames failure to generate 2,967.5 megawatts on gas shortage
The report revealed that the power sector lost an estimated N2,229 billion on Sunday due to insufficient gas supply, distribution and transmission infrastructure.
On sector reform/activities, it said that the dominant constraint for Wednesday was unavailability of gas.
The report said that the peak generation attained on Wednesday was 5,048.2 megawatts.
