Fidelia Okafor.

In terms of electricity, the nation continues to plunge further in despair as power generation from its largest power station at Egbin dropped to a record low of 172 megawatts yesterday from 1,085 megawatts.

According to Punch, out of the nation’s 26 power plants, eight were left idle on Tuesday including the Olorunsogo II in Ogun state and the Ibom power in Cross River. Power generation at Egbin, Lagos was restricted to 172MW from an installed capacity of 1320 MW. This owed to lack of gas supply.

Its units ST3, 4 and 5 ran out of gas supply, ST1 encountered generator trouble and ST2 was not on spinning reserve as decided by management.

Data showed that a total system collapse was recorded on Thursday, November 24^th, the second time this month and the 20^th time overall for this year. Also, the nation’s total power generation has fallen from 3,574.2MW to 3,224MW from Monday to Tuesday.

Power plants which did not generate electricity at all as of Tuesday include Afam IV and V, Trans-Amadi AES, Asco and Gbarain. Certain mechanical issues and faults were said to have held back the Afam IV and V power plants while the Trans- Amadi and Gbarain power plants were reportedly out of gas.

The ASCO GT1 power plant was shut down because of a leak in its furnace and the AES was said to be out of commission.