Electricity Workers Explain Why Power Sector Crisis Will Persist

There are strong indications that the power supply crisis plaguing the country may persist for a longer time as Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, and the generation companies, GenCos, are battling with outdated, obsolete networks, inadequate maintenance of equipment, and dilapidated generation machinery, causing below optimal capacity utilization.

Similarly, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, is being weighed down by twin issues of technical and socio-political factors.

Investigations revealed that the sector is suffering from low generating capacity, poor system maintenance, vandalism of electricity demand, inadequate investment in transmission infrastructure, and technical losses hindering DisCos from off-take loads from TCN.

It also is facing the challenges of sub-standard facilities, incessant vandalism of pipelines that supply gas to stations, systemic corruption resulting in non-execution of awarded projects, under-capacity utilization, illegal connection, insufficient power allocation, huge metering gap, inappropriate network planning, huge indebtedness/low collection efficiency and maintenance of existing facilities and building of new ones.

Poor supply affects households, businesses — NUEE, others
The poor power supply is negatively affecting households, small businesses and even large businesses that depend on expensive diesel and fuel to operate their generators. Many businesses are collapsing and it is seriously causing the economy to bleed.

Speaking on the challenges, the acting General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Dominic Igwebike, said “The frequency of system collapse is mainly due to technical and socio-political factors.

‘’The technical issues include power transformers, grid expansion and maintenance, availability/application of SCADA and other power transmission technologies, generation capacity, etc. There is also a shortage of trained, experienced, and committed power systems professionals.

“The socio-political issues are even more dreaded, ranging from appointments of those overseeing the power sector to the formulation, implementation, and review of power sector policies. Closely related to this is the procurement processes and the influence of political heavyweights who fronts proxies, etc.

‘’The care-free attitude of citizens in handling power infrastructure located in their vicinity is another problem. These are manifested in vandalism, bushfires, construction under high-tension power lines, etc.

“The national power grid, a network of electrical transmission lines connecting generating stations to loads over the entire country, is designed to operate within certain stability limits in terms of voltage (330kV±5%) and frequency (50Hz±0.5%). Any deviation from these stability ranges can result in decreased power quality and, in severe cases, cause widespread power outages.

“The system operator is responsible for ensuring that the frequency remains within a ±0.5% tolerance threshold. When there is a significant deviation between demand and supply on the grid, this can cause grid parameters to move outside of their stability ranges, thereby creating the risk of a collapse.

‘’This usually occurs when demand is greater than supply, thereby causing the grid frequency to drop outside safe operational range which causes the most sensitive plants to shut down automatically. These shutdowns further exacerbate the frequency imbalance and can lead to a full or partial system collapse. We need to have more generations and frequent training of system operators.

“When several private companies are involved in delivering a public service, this can create a complicated, fragmented system where it is not always clear who is doing what. For example, in our electricity industry, different organisations are responsible for managing the DisCos and GenCos. This is inefficient and wasteful. No MW has been added and Nigerians are in darkness.”

Main problem of GenCos
According to him, “the main problem of the GenCos is simple technical operational issues like shortage of gas supplies and ageing and dilapidated generation machinery causing below optimal capacity utilization. The people who bought the assets did not invest and increase the generation capacity. There is also inadequate power evacuation capacity at GenCo locations, coupled with unstable and fragile facilities.

“DisCos are currently grappling with significant operational challenges including obsolete networks, inadequate maintenance of network equipment, deficient customer data, low meter penetration, and limited investments. The investors only care about the revenues and casualization is still ongoing, the main staff that knows the network has been sacked. External funding received is always mismanaged