Blackout: FG Gives GenCos July 1 Deadline To Attain 5,000MW Of Electricity

As Nigerians continue to grapple with the worsening power supply in the country, the Federal Government through
the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has set a deadline of July 1 for electricity generating companies to attain 5,000 megawatts of power generation.

The Chairman, NERC, Sanusi Garba, who gave the directive stated that the entire value chain of the power sector, comprising Gencos, Distributing companies, and the Transmission Company of Nigeria have committed to signing a contract to deliver 5000MW of electricity to power consumers.

The national grid, which is being managed by government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria, has continued to suffer system collapse over the years amid a lack of spinning reserve that is meant to forestall such occurrences.

Major cities across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory, experienced a blackout on Sunday following another collapse of the national grid.

The affected cities where there was an outage include those under the domain of Jos Electricity Distribution Company, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc, and Eko Electricity Distribution Company, among others.

Last Sunday’s collapse is the latest in the series of breakdowns of the national grid since the beginning of the year. In some cases, the national grid collapsed more than twice in a month.

But the NERC Chairman listed major reasons for the recent grid collapses as vandalism of gas pipelines, and attacks on transmission towers by vandals.

On what the commission is further doing to stabilise the power grid, he said the federal government was planning to invest in the national grid through capital expenditure to ensure stability.

Garba pointed out that the entire value chain has committed to signing contracts to meet up with the power needs of electricity consumers.

Specifically, he said GenCos will sign contracts with gas producers to buy gas to produce.

He said, “This is the first time this kind of contract among all parties will take place. In the past, there have been complaints of lack of gas from generation companies, Discos complain of unpaid tariffs, and then the TCN would say also they transmit whatever they get.

“But now, the entire value chain has committed to signing contracts to meet up with the power needs of electricity consumers. GenCos will sign contracts with gas producers to buy gas to produce. We have also involved gas suppliers who are committed to making gas available.

“Under the contract, DisCOs are not allowed to buy less than 5000MW, and TCN has also said they have the capacity to transmit at least 5000 megawatts. So this time around, there will not be a flop by any party.”

Garba said the DisCos would this time commit to making funds available for GenCos to pay for gas.

On measures put in place to ensure compliance, Garba said there would be stringent penalties for non-compliance.

“There will be consequences. Whoever does not meet up with their part of the contracts will be fined”, he said.

The NERC chairman added that the proposed contracts already have the support of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria.