The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, says the interim challenges of the power sector have now shifted from poor gas supply to network instability.
Chairman of the commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, who disclosed this in Abuja , said to tackle the problem, NERC would be setting up an interim team charged with the responsibility of working around identified network challenges, to enable the sector finish the year with a high generation mark.
He explained that electricity distribution companies were being pushed to strengthen their networks for adequate load management, as well as the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, to continue to strengthen the stability of the transmission network.
According to him, “Most of our problems are no longer gas. We are setting up an internal committee to task us on the technical challenges and make sure that we get up to 5,000 megawatts, MW, fully delivered by the end of the month.
“They will concentrate on some issues of the identified issues around load management, technical challenges in the network. So, largely in the short run, getting to 5,000MW is not our challenge now but dealing with the distribution companies and frequency management is.”
Meanwhile, NERC has also inaugurated a 14-man task force to push through its electricity generation targets of 5,000 MW by the end of September and 6,000MW by the year end by recovering certain stranded quantities of power into the system.
The commission, in statement it issued in Abuja, explained that peak capacity generation of 4,800MW was achieved few weeks ago by the power sector on account of its stringent regulatory measures and the cooperation of industry operators in response to the federal government’s renewed commitment to improve power supply.
