IPC Board Moves to Abate Ibom Power Evacuation Challenges as NERC Threatens DISCOS Over Rejection of Power

The Board Chairman of Ibom Power Company Limited, Engr. Etido Inyang has said three options are being considered to resolve challenges of power evacuation along the Aba – Itu 132kV transmission line.

Speaking during a tour of Ibom power facility at Ikot Abasi, the Chairman said the Board has taken cognizance of constraints along the Aba – Itu line and three options are being considered aspresented by the Managing Director, Engr. Meyen Etukudo.

He said although transmission is a Federal Government problem, the Board will prioritize based on the available options to ensure adequate power evacuation from Ibom power plant to provide electricity to Akwa Ibom State and Nigeria.

Ibom power Gas Turbine Generator (GTG) 3 is producing an average of 105Megawatts (MW) daily but only about 70MW is being evacuated due to constrains in the Aba – Itu 132kV transmission line.

Meanwhile the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has threatened to punish violators of regulations guiding power wheeling from generation to distribution companies.

NERC Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Enforcement, Mr. Dafe Akpeneye, said there are adequate rules and regulations in place to address the wheeling of load from generation companies to distribution companies and the sanctions specified for breach will be applied strictly on any operator that violates these rules and regulations.

It was reported that rejection of electricity from the System Operator by some power distribution companies made the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ask the power generation firms to reduce the quantum of the electricity they were generating.

In response to the claims of load rejection, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has blamed constraints in transmission capacity for rationing in parts of Abuja and many other states.

TCN has however, denied that the challenge was that of transmission’s wheeling capacity as it has 6,500 megawatts (MW) capacity with peak power at only 4,650MW generated this year.

Hits: 0