16 power plants in Nigeria saw an increase in their output on Sunday, crashing the number of idle plants in the Africa’s most populous nation to nine and surging the generation by 979.2 megawatts to 4,312.1 megawatt.
Nigeria has an estimated population of 200 million.
As at 6am on Saturday, power generation, according to data obtained by Platforms Africa, stood at 3,332.9MW.
The Data of the Nigerian Electricity System Operator, which showed this added that the plants that did not generate any megawatts of electricity as of 6am on Sunday were Afam IV & V, Sapele II, Alaoji, Olorunsogo II, Ihovbor, Gbarain, Ibom Power, AES and ASCO.
Sapele I and Omotosho II, which were idle as of 6am on Saturday, generated 36MW and 26.1MW on Sunday.
This has swiftly created concern for players at the Transmission stratum od the industry.
The transmission has a history of collapse anytime power generation reaches a new peak.
The nation generates most of its electricity from gas-fired power plants, while output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 per cent of the total generation.
Generation from Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro hydro plants, which stood at 182MW, 289MW and 412MW, respectively as of 6am on Saturday, rose to 305MW, 300MW and 450MW on Sunday.
Electricity generation from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station, increased to 454MW as of 6am on Sunday from 304MW on Saturday.
Other plants that recorded increases in their outputs on Sunday were Delta (gas), Omotosho I, Olorunsogo I, Geregu II, Odukpani, Okpai, Azura-Edo, Afam VI, Omoku and Rivers IPP.
The amount of power generation capacity left unused fell to 3,005.9MW as of 6am on Sunday from 3,558.9MW on Saturday.
Gas constraints and low load demand by the distribution companies hampered the generation of 2,019.7MW and 986.2MW respectively on Sunday, according to NESO.
The system operator put the national peak demand forecast at 28,290MW; installed generation capacity at 12,910.40MW; available capacity at 7,652.60MW; transmission wheeling capacity at 8,100MW; and peak generation at 5,420.30MW.