Power Sector Revenue Shortfall Hits N80bn In 2months

The nation’s power sector has recorded a revenue shortfall of N80bn in almost two months.

Latest data obtained on Wednesday specifically put the sector’s revenue shortfall at N80.21bn, and showed that an average of about N2bn was lost on daily basis.

Last week,it reported that the power sector lost N69.1bn in the first seven weeks of this year.

The report showed that between January 1 and February 19 this year, the sector lost N69.1bn as a result of the persistent challenges in the sector.

The Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice-President explained on Wednesday that the increasing revenue shortfall in the sector was due to inefficient gas supply and distribution infrastructure, as well as transmission and water reserves constraints.

The APT also provided updates on the country’s power generation and distribution figures for February 25, 2019.

It stated that on February 25, 2019, the average energy sent out was 3,725 megawatts-hour/hour, up by 111.96MWh/h from the previous day’s energy figure.

A total of 1,962.5MW of electricity was not generated due to the unavailability of gas, while 177.3MW was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure on the same day.

The APT said high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure also prevented the generation of 2,145.7MW of power on February 25, 2019, while 150MW was recorded as losses due to water managetment issues.

It added, “The power sector lost an estimated N2,129,000,000 on February 25, 2019 due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.

“The dominant constraint on February 25, 2019 was due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure, constraining a total of 2,145.7MW from being available on the grid.”

The power team stated that peak generation attained on February 25, 2019 was 4,492MW.

It noted that the peak average energy sent out ever was 4,557MWh/h and this happened on February 2, 2016, while peak generation attained ever was 5,375MW on February 7, 2019.

“Estimated amount lost to insufficient gas supply, distribution, transmission and water reserves to date in 2019 is N80,216,000,000,” the APT said.