25/04/2024
WHY POWER SECTOR CRISIS WON'T END SOON—ELECTRICITY WORKERS
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a longer time as Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, and the generation companies, GenCos, are battling with outdated, obsolete networks, inadequate maintenance of equipment, and dilapidated generation machinery, causing below optimal capacity utilization.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 installations, ineffective enforcement of policies, surge in 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.
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.Middle Belt Monitor