Electricity: Developing frameworks of complementary structures along lines of power subsubsections

The narrative of the power output in Nigeria remains in the precipitating lines of disgust. Giving attention to the wobbling state of power supply in the Country has been a subject that erupts crops of reservations. Courses and development move directed over the years towards the aim of enhancing the productivity of the power sector has more or less been yielding results that are daunting and apparently dashing hope of having a better output in any close future. The narrative of the output compared with the prevailing pressure of economic demands is conspicuously anti-directional. The wobbling records of the sector working along the lines of instability is one character which poorly defines the supply of electricity in the Country.

The epilepsy of power generation which at critical points lamentably falls below 4,000 megawatts remains a source of worry, particularly at a time when the alacritous necessity for power is far more pressuring. Cases of total shutdown of some power plants on the national grid in the Country are tingling reports that are irritating to the ear. Such experiences recurrently attributed to  constraints in gas, rupturing of gas pipeline, low load demand by the Distribution Companies (DisCos), poor maintenance and frequency response, among others, are challenges that Nigeria at this level should have surmounted. The privatization of the power sector  which took off in November 2013  with  the carving out of the DisCos and GenCos from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), has not yielded any result commensurate to the expectations.   The privatisation of the sector, has otherwise lamentably generated more controversies and  apparently recorded more failure than good.

It was disclosed according to data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator that power generation in the Country fell on Sunday below the 4,000 megawatts mark as the output of the hydropower plants tumbled by more than a third. According to the breakdown of the data, the power plants on the national grid generated just 3,657MW as of 6am on Sunday, down from 4156.7MW on Saturday, just as a total of 2,792.6MW of generation capacity was idle as of 6am on Sunday. As the usual experience, the rationale behind the shortfall was a function of gas constraints, low load demand by the distribution companies and water managemen. A comparative report disclosed that three of the four hydropower plants have their combined output fall by 36.66 per cent as of 6am on Sunday to 660MW from 1,042MW on Saturday, while generation at Kainji hydropower plant declined to 279MW on Sunday from 333MW the previous day; Jebba’s output fell to 261MW from 415MW; while Shiroro’s generation level dropped to 120MW from 294MW. The country’s biggest power station, Egbin in Lagos, have its output decrease to 651MW as of 6am on Sunday from 821MW on Saturday. It was also reported that 10 of the power plants on the national grid did not generate any megawatts of electricity as of 6am on Sunday.

The epilepsy of the power sector in the Country is a source of concern when consideration is given to the pressing demands of the Nigerian economy. The worsening state of the economy with vicious strings of disturbances demands consistency in the workings of strong impetus necessary to revamping the economy from the fulcrum of precipice. The workings of the Country’s power sector largely premised on generation of electricity from gas-fired power plants of about 70 per cent with about 30 per cent generation sourced from hydropower plants, has only been characterised with the features of inconsistencies and unreliability. The records of power outage on several instances and the experiences of fluttering waves of outputs, reflect nothing more than an infantile system with weak wings of capacity to cater for the Country’s socio-economic demands.

The subject of controversies over the working networks along the three major arms of the sector largely remain unaddressed. The destabilising strings of lacuna bridging the synergy among the Generation, Transmission and Distribution arms of the sector call for attention. The discrepancies along the lines of the architectures of these arms of the sector demand reconciliation with working structures to eliminate prevailing deficiencies. It is therefore essential for the Government to give an holistic approach to studying the deficiencies of the system as an architecture in whole in order to harmonize the working arms of the sector by eliminating the strains of defects producing shrinkage in the level of output below demands. This is hence essential to develop the sector with systemic patterns that work in coordinated lines of operations to attain the highest level of efficiency needed to meet the demands of the economy. Such approach is imperative to eliminate the preponderance of waste which have been a character of the system due to uncoordinated structures in the working networks among the operational lines of the subsectors. Efforts therefore should be made towards drawing frameworks of long term infrastructure-development plans to vitalise the workings of the sector along the subsectional lines to build a virile system of power production, commensurate to the demands of the economy.