The Federal Government has said power supply leaped by 400 megawatts in the past two weeks after key maintenance in the hydro power plants.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, in a statement by his spokesman, Hakeem Bello, said broken down turbines at the plants were repaired and maintained to enhance the generating capacity of such plants during the increased circle of rainfall and water levels.
Fashola, who gave the explanation in a presentation at the Wilson Centre, Washington DC, USA, said the feat was gained in spite of the vandalism and sabotage of power assets.
The statement read: “The minister said electricity supply increased by 400mw in the last two weeks due to increase in the generating capacity of the hydro Power Plants achieved through the repairs and maintenance carried out on them in the last one year.”
The Daily Trust reports that the highest peak generation attained was last Saturday when the national grid rose to 4,265mw. As at Sunday, it had gone down to 3,600mw.
“In the last one year, we have done a lot of repairs and maintenance work so that every year, of course, there is increased circle of rainfall and water levels, but if you have three turbines and only one is working you can only depend on one. So where we had one working, we now have two, where we had two, we now have three,” he said.
Fashola recalled that over 3000mw of power was lost in the last six months due to consistent vandalism and sabotage of oil and gas pipelines and assets.