The nation’s power generation has stabilised at around 3,900megawatts in the past few days, due largely to high water levels at the hydro stations and stability in gas supply to some of the thermal stations.

Our correspondent gathered that peak power generation on Monday was 3, 927.5MW, with 3,900MW recorded on Tuesday, while 3,780MW was recorded on Wednesday morning.

Information gathered from sources at the Power Holding Company of Nigeria revealed that a peak generation of 4,323MW was achieved on August 31, few days after the former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, resigned his appointment.

The figures were, however, contrary to the ones given by the Ministry of Power, which put power generation at around 4,439.5MW.

The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs. Dere Awosika, had said in a statement on Tuesday that power generation had not dropped by 1,000MW, contrary to a newspaper report (not The PUNCH).

She had said in the statement, “The attention of the Ministry of Power has been drawn to a report alleging that power generation has dropped by 1,000MW. The fact is that there is no iota of truth in the publication.

“At present, the peak generation has remained 4,439.5MW. This peak status was gained on September 5, and since then, it has been steady. We have tried as much as possible to be transparent and provide relevant and accurate data. Our doors remain open.”

Awosika said the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Darius Ishaku, had assured Nigerians that the recent gains in power generation “will not only be consolidated, but will be improved upon.”

Also, the Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, had said the nation must generate a minimum 4,500MW as justification for a new tariff regime under the Multi Year Tariff Order.

He said in Abuja on Tuesday that the 4,500MW projected for December was an outcome of the worst and best scenarios that could be experienced by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, generation companies and the National Integrated Power Projects.

Amadi said that in order to be realistic, NERC had pegged its benchmark at 4,500MW instead of the 5,000MW projected by the Ministry of Power.