The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said on Monday that the load shedding being experienced in the country was caused by activities of vandals on two major gas pipelines.
This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja by Dave Ifabiyi, the general manager (public affairs), TCN.
In the statement, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Fabiyi said “there is a total generation loss of 1,598 megawatts of electricity.
“The total power generation as of 2 pm today (Monday) is 2,290 megawatts. With this low level generation, the operation and control of the system is at a major challenge”, he said.
Fabiyi assured that gas supply would be restored to the affected power generating stations soon.
“Because of the critical importance of the vandalised pipelines to power generation, the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) is working seriously to isolate the vandalised portions of the pipelines in order to effect repairs.
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“TCN deeply regrets the inconveniences the load shedding is causing to Nigerians nationwide”, he said.
Specifically, Fabiyi said the disruption affected Rivers State Independent Power Station.
He said one of the vandalised gas pipelines took supply from the Okoloma gas plant while the other took supply from Escravos.
According to him, the NGC is unable to move gas to Afam IV and VI generation plants and the Independent Power Plant in Rivers State, resulting in the loss.
Fabiyi added that the second vandalised gas pipeline from Escravos to Warri caused a cutback of 1,005 megawatts in power generation from Egbin station.
He said that the Olorunsogo, Omotosho and Geregu power generating plants were also affected by the power drop.
