FG Loses 4,700MW of Electricity to Gas Shortage

Nigeria's Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, on Monday announced that the country was still losing 4,700MW due to the unavailability of gas to fire 7,800MW space capacity, this coming barely four days after the federal government announced that for the first time in Nigeria’s history, it was generating 4,600 megawatts (MW) of electricity,

Speaking in Lagos at the pre-conference workshop of the 32nd annual conference and exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Nebo said of the 7,800MW available in the gas-fired power plants, the gas plants in the Niger Delta provide only 880 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) of gas to fuel the generation of 3,100MW daily.

Before the recent 4,600MW-peak, the country’s highest electricity output was recorded on December 23, 2012 at 4,517.6MW.

According to Nebo, 1.9 billion cubic feet per day of gas (bcf/d) would be required to generate the 7,800MW available capacity, adding that with the 880mmscf/d gas that is available, there is a gas supply deficit of one billion cubic feet per day.

Nebo, who spoke on “The Challenges to Developing Sustainable IPP Projects in Nigeria”, reiterated that Nigeria’s current daily power output was about 4,000MW but 3,100MW of this is fuelled by about 880mmscf/d of gas.

He advised the new investors in the power sector to immediately begin the implementation of their respective business plans to reduce losses and recover unutilised capacities.