… Promises speedy restoration of supply

By NOEL ONOJA

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said that the sudden loss of 1,598 mega watts of power on Sunday is due to gas shortages resulting from the vandalism of two major gas pipelines supplying gas to eight power plants in the country.

The development led to massive load shedding to control frequency and improve voltage nationwide, thus compounding the epileptic supply being witnessed in many parts of the country for many months now even before the pipeline vandalism.

The affected plants include: Egbin/AES Thermal stations; Olorunsogo; Omotoso; Geregu NIPP; Afam IV and VI Thermal stations as well as the Rivers State Independent Power Plant.

A statement on Monday from the General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Mr. Dave Ifabiyi, said one of the damaged pipelines is fed from the Shell-operated, Okoloma Gas Plant, while the other takes from Chevron’s Escravos line.

The statement also said that with the disruption of gas supply, the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) is unable to move gas to Afam IV, Afam VI as well as the Independent Power Plant in Rivers State, thus resulting in capacity loss of 593MW.

The damage to the Escravos to Warri line is huge as it caused caused a combined cutback of 1,005MW from the Egbin /AES power plant, Olorunsogo, Omotosho and Geregu plants.

Accordingly, output as at Monday, was down to 2,290MW at 2pm, even as operation and control of the system remained a major challenge.

TCN further said that due to the importance of these pipelines to power generation, NGC is making efforts to isolate the damaged portions of the pipelines for repairs, and restore gas supply to the plants at the shortest possible time.

Restoring gas supply

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, also  gave the assurance that power supply will soon be restored to areas affected,  adding that all necessary expertise has been mobilised for this purpose.

The minister totally condemned the unpatriotic acts of the vandals, and reassured Nigerians that his Ministry was already collaborating with security agents to provide more protection for power infrastructure across the country.

He further appealed for the understanding from Nigerians whose homes and businesses are being affected by the current supply shortages, adding that everything possible is being done to rectify the situation speedily.