On Sunday, the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) blamed the outage of some of the country’s turbines on inefficient national grid operation.
The intermittent start and stop of plants, according to Dr Joy Ogaji, Executive Secretary of the APGC, causes wear and tear and adversely affects the plants, causing maintenance issues at a time when they should be at their best.
“GenCos are supposed to start and stop at most 20 times a year,” she explained, “but in Nigeria, they start and stop 365 days a year, and this wear and tear is affecting the plants, causing maintenance issues at a time when they should be optimal.”
She went on to say that while there are low and high seasons, the market’s designers make sure that the impact is minimal.
“At this time, the thermals are supposed to be operating at full blast.”
“It was planned that way.”
She did, however, point out that the design is currently unusable due to grid management issues.
“GenCos are supposed to start and stop 20 times a year at most, but in Nigeria, they start and stop 365 days a year, causing wear and tear on the plants and causing maintenance issues at a time when they should be optimal.”
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“Last year, GenCos hired an expert to look into these issues, and it was discovered that the turbines were affected by the ramp down and ramp-up.
“For example, Siemens has advised Geregu to shut down the machines, stating that if the start-stop pattern continues, the three turbines will be destroyed until maintenance is completed.
Calabar has also been notified about a similar issue and is awaiting maintenance.”
Before the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) took over electricity payments in 2015, the Market Operator used to pay GenCos for capacity and energy charges based on the privatization contract, according to Ogaji, but NBET has been illegally stopping that since 2015.
“At the moment, NBET owes us N1.644.15 trillion in unpaid available capacity charges.”
According to the breakdown, about half of the available GenCos are not paid for each year because the national grid is unable to transport the energy to consumers.
GenCos had a 6,661MW capacity in 2015, but the grid took 3,606MW because 3,010MW was stranded, resulting in a N214.9 billion shortfall; GenCos had 3,828MW in 2016, with N273.9 billion in debt; and another 236.4 billion in debt due to 3,312MW stranded power in 2017.
In 2018, stranded power was worth N264 billion, and in 2019, it was worth N256.9 billion for 3,599MW of unutilized electricity.
Due to 3,742MW of stranded power, the GenCos will be unable to earn N266 billion by 2020, while the debt for last year was N120 billion, when the GenCos had 6,336MW of capacity but 2,246MW stranded due to grid inefficiency.
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“We want to have a sit-down with the government as a matter of urgency if we want sustainability of power in the market,” she said of the proposed solution. “We want to look at these line items and let NBET bring their book for reconciliation.”
Meanwhile, NBET disputed the GenCos’ figures, claiming that only companies with active gas supply and transportation contracts were compensated for unutilized capacity.
Henrietta Ighomrore, NBET’s Head of Corporate Communication, explained that only five power generation companies with active Gas Purchase Agreements were paid for unused capacity in the country.
Dr. Ogaji’s claims that the GenCos have the capacity to generate 9,000MW were inaccurate, according to her, because NBET inspections revealed that the capacity does not exist.
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