Nigeria’s power transmission company, TCN, transmits 27,366mw more electricity than DISCOs can handle in January
Bukola Odufade is Businessamlive Reporter.
You can contact her on bukola.odufade@businessamlive.com with stories and commentary.
Nigeria is currently generating and producing more electricity than it can
distribute as the allocation to various distribution companies, (DISCOs)
remains higher than the actual consumption.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in a report it released this week, said total
megawatts consumed in the first three weeks of January stood at 61,293.84
megawatts, while actual transmission from the national grid was at
88,660.38 megawatts.
The differential in excess power was put at 27,366.54 megawatts, leaving the allocation much higher but with the country still facing erratic power supply.
Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing in an interview had earlier said that excess production capacity continue to remain idle as the government looks to expand the distribution networks.
The director of research and advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, had also earlier explained the reasons for the under-utilization stating that TCN often defies the daily load schedules of the DISCOs by transmitting electricity to where DISCOs have low distribution needs, leaving out the high areas of electricity demand.
The transmission company’s data show that Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC) topped the list of the DISCOs underutilizing the allocated megawatts with a total of 3,557mw. It is followed by Eko Distribution Company (EKEDC) at 2,745.5mw, and Ibadan Electric Distribution Company (IBEDC) with a total of 2,192.5mw.
Abuja Electric Distribution Company (AEDC) was in fourth position with 1,885.2mw with Enugu Electric Distribution Company (EEDC) coming in at fifth position with 1,690mw unutilised supplied power.
Other distribution companies in the data and their level of unutilised poweer were Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KEDC) at 1,533mw; Benin Electric Distribution Company (BEDC) at 1,330mw; Kano Electric Distribution Company (KEDCO) at 1,295mw; Jos Electric Distribution Company (JED Plc) at 1,086mw; Port Harcourt Distribution Company (PHED) at 753mw; and Yola Electric Distribution Company (YEDC) at 612mw.
TCN was advised to strengthen its networks in order to minimize the transmission constraints that leads to poor load allocation in the cities.