Power supply to Lagos drops by 67%

Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo
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Power supply from the national grid to Lagos has dropped by 67 per cent.

The drop on Sunday followed a drastic reduction in power generation from 3,367.20MW on Friday to 2,628MW on Saturday.

Some officials of the Power Holding Company  of Nigeria, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday but asked not to be named,  said the Eko  and Ikeja Distribution companies responsible for power supply to Lagos and its environs received an average electricity supply of 600MW from the national grid daily.

This, according to them, has been reduced by 67 per cent due to the crisis affecting some of the nation’s power plants.

Our correspondent gathered that the two distribution companies in Lagos got a little over 200MW each on Sunday.

When contacted, a senior official of the Ikeja Distribition Company, who also spoke under anonymity, confirmed that the DISCO, which normally received over 600MW from the national grid, was only supplied 226MW on Sunday.

He explained that this had been responsible for the latest load shedding in Lagos and warned that the situation could continue if generation did not improve.

The nation was thrown into massive load shedding and near black out on Saturday when power generation level dropped to 2,628.6 mega watts.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, attributed the problem to the low gas supplied to the generation plants in the area.

The Special Assistant to the Minister on Media, Ms. Kande Daniel, said Afam IV, Afam VI power plants as well as Rivers Independent Power Plant were shut down on Friday night with a combined loss of 624MW due to gas issues.

She said, in a statement, that government had already set machinery in motion to reverse the situation.