Power supply drops in Lagos, Abuja and three other states as gas runs short at power plants

If your light has been poor this week, you are not alone. The Federal Government has admitted that supply has dropped in Lagos, Abuja, Ogun, Kwara and Oyo states.

What the government says

In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Power blamed three things: too little gas reaching thermal power plants, low water flowing into the reservoirs of hydro stations, and maintenance work on some equipment.

The ministry said the outages were "not the result of any major or systemic failure" of the national grid, Blueprint reported. Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe is working with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), NISO and the DisCos to restore supply, the statement said. It gave no date.

NISO, the grid operator, gave the same causes in its own statement on Thursday. With less power available, DisCos receive smaller shares, so supply hours are shorter and more feeders are switched off in turns, Nairametrics and Business Post reported.

The numbers

Generation stood at 3,659 MW at 3pm on Thursday, down from a peak of 3,996 MW on Wednesday, Vanguard reported from grid data. At 5:39pm the 11 DisCos were sharing 3,031 MW. Abuja had the largest share at 669 MW. Ikeja had 249 MW and Eko 256 MW.

Legit.ng gave a different snapshot taken an hour earlier: 2,926 MW for all DisCos at 4:41pm. The two figures come from different times of day and do not contradict each other. Grid figures move hour by hour.

Equipment stuck at the port since 2014

The same ministry statement said 44 of more than 300 containers of power equipment stranded at Apapa port have now been cleared, ThisDay and The Whistler reported. Some have sat there since 2014. Experts will check what is inside, use what still works and dispose of the rest.

Earlier, the Niger Delta Power Holding Company recovered 110 containers and 216 packages, which the ministry said saved more than ₦30 billion and freed turbines for about 470 MW. No value was given for the containers still at the port.

What it means for you

Expect shorter supply hours until gas deliveries and water levels improve. Nobody has said when that will be. If you pay Band A rates and are getting far less than 20 hours a day, keep a note of the hours. If your feeder keeps missing its band's promise, you are paying for supply you did not get, and the record will help any complaint to your DisCo or to NERC. How the bands work, and why a gas shortage turns into a blackout.