Severe blackout in Nigeria & PHCN's outrageously high bills

From Vanguard News,
As the country prepares for the yuletide season, Nigerians across the country have continued to groan under intense electric power outage currently rocking the nation.

As if the heat accompanied by this massive power blackout is not enough, the nation’s power utility company, Power Holding Company of Niger, PHCN, has continued to distribute outrageously high bills, popularly known as crazy bills, to virtually all consumers.

This is coming even as the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, the connecting company between generation and distribution, claims that it is currently transmitting over 4,000 Megawatts to distribution companies across the country.


The reasons for the current situation has been blamed on the system collapse, which occurred on Thursday, November 29, due to a fault on the 330kv transmission line from Benin to Onitsha and the shutdown of Escravos Gas Plant, causing the combined nationwide shutdown of 3,716Mw, the shutdown of three units of the Egbin Power Station and the closure of transmission stores, which house maintenance spare parts for PHCN facilities.

When contacted, Sam Amadi, Chairman of NERC, placed the problem of low power voltages on the doorstep of distribution companies and stated that NERC was redirecting its focus on that unit of the power sector, as according to him, corruption cannot be ruled out as a factor. He said his Commission would also want to investigate if the MYTO funds being disbursed by the market operator to distribution companies was being used for its intended purpose.

However, investigations revealed that the nationwide blackout could not have been unconnected with the systems collapse emanating from multiple factors.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, had issued a statement recently apologising for the power outage, which cut off power supply to consumers nationwide.

In that statement by TCN, AGM Public Affairs, Dave Ifabiyi, the immediate cause of the problem was said to be a fault on its 330Kv transmission line from Benin to Onitsha, which was aggravated by the shutdown of Chevrons Escravos Gas Plant.

The incident caused a generation loss of about 3,716 Megawatts and shut down the nation’s grid system.

The closure of the Escravos Gas Plant on the Western Gas Network to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System alone may reduce the nation’s electricity supply by 300Mw for three weeks, even as the Presidential Task Force on Power, in a recent statement, gave the assurance that measures had been taken to reduce the impact of the partial shutdown, which began on November 26.

However, the shutdown had been described as an important and scheduled interruption to enable Chevron tie in wells and lay pipes for sustainable gas supply to the domestic market and the gas-to-liquid plant.