Professor Barth Nnaji

By Chineme Okafor

The  Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Sunday night said to Nigerians: “We are sincerely sorry for the ongoing load-shedding” being experienced as a result of the scheduled maintenance of some gas plants in the country.

The plants that are for maintenance are Utorogu and Ughelli East Gas Plants, Oben and Ogharefe Gas Plants of Saplet and Pan Ocean.

The company, in a statement Sunday in Abuja, said it the action was due to maintenance exercise on some of the plants, and appealed for patience, understanding and support for the repairs.

The company assured Nigerians that power supply in the country would considerably improve once gas supply is restored to the power stations undergoing routine maintenance work.

The statement reads: “The management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) wishes to sincerely apologise to its valued customers and other stakeholders that the current load-shedding being experienced is as a result of the planned shutdown of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Utorogu and Ughelli East Gas Plants, Oben and Ogharefe Gas Plants of Saplet and Pan Ocean for maintenance purpose.

“The planned maintenance has led to loss of gas supply to some of our power stations resulting in minimal load-shedding in some parts of the country.”

It added: “We therefore appeal to our valued customers and other stakeholders for understanding and support, while assuring that power supply situation will considerably improve once gas supply is restored to these power stations.”

However, last week, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said the massive load shedding embarked upon by its licensees was a violation of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005 and that it will henceforth mete out appropriate sanctions on erring organisations.

NERC in this regard issued a warning to PHCN and five other power plants, namely Geregu, Sapele, Ughelli, Olorunsogo, and Omotosho over the load shedding of about 1400 megawatts (mw) which started last Tuesday and will last for seven days, saying the action is without its approval.

While stating that it was not opposed to the maintenance work on the gas facilities or PHCN generating and transmitting stations, NERC in a letter to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PHCN, Executive Director, System Operator (SO) of Transmission Company of Nigerian (TCN) and that of the five power stations, warned of the grave consequences of their actions.

-ThisDay

Posted by admin on Oct 17 2011. Filed under Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry