Blackout: Shiroro, Sapele power plants shut

 

The two shut plants are Shiroro Power Station in Niger State and Sapele II in Delta State, industry data obtained according to Punch. Shiroro, whose capacity was put at 600MW, was said to have seen its unit 411G1 tripped on emergency shutdown on the 86ES lockout relay; units 411G2 and 3 out for under water repair work; and unit 411G4 out on maintenance.

 The Sapele II, built under the National Integrated Power Project, with its capacity put at 225MW, has four units. The GT1 was shut down for maintenance, GT3 out due to work by the Nigerian Gas Company at the gas station, while the GT2 and 4 units are out as a result of gas constraints.

Total national power generation stood at 2,774.2MW on Tuesday, down from 3,657.5MW on March 31. Generation from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station, was limited to 415MW due to gas constraints, down from 1,085MW on March 15.

Shell’s Afam VI power plant generated the highest megawatts of electricity at 418MW as of 6am, the data showed. The slide in power generation has worsened the blackout being experienced in many parts of the country as many consumers complained of outages lasting for hours on end. 

The PUNCH had on Friday reported exclusively that eight of the nation’s power plants were completely idle on Thursday, with significant reduction in generation from others, including Egbin, which is located in Lagos.

The plants, which did not generate any megawatts of electricity included Sapele, Delta State, whose installed capacity was put at 240MW; Olorunsogo II in Ogun State, with a capacity of 625MW; Rivers IPP (180MW) and Trans-Amadi (75MW), both in Rivers State.

Others were Geregu I in Kogi; Afam IV & V in Rivers, and A.E.S and Asco, whose installed capacity were not given. Sapele’s units were said to be shut due to gas constraints, tripping, maintenance and major overhaul, among other reasons.