Shiroro, Sapele power plants shutdown worsens blackout

The nation’s electricity woes worsened on Tuesday as two additional power generating plants were shut down, bringing the total number of plants not generating any megawatts of electricity to 10. Industry data showed that the two shut plants are Shiroro Power Station in Niger State and Sapele II in Delta State, The Punch reports.

Shiroro, whose capacity was put at 600MW, was said to have seen its unit 411G1 tripped on emergency shutdown on the 86ES lockout relay; units 411G2 and 3 out for under water repair work; and unit 411G4 out on maintenance.

Total national power generation stood at 2,774.2MW on Tuesday, down from 3,657.5MW on March 31. Generation from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station, was limited to 415MW due to gas constraints, down from 1,085MW on March 15. The slide in power generation has worsened the blackout being experienced in many parts of the country as many consumers complained of outages lasting for hours on end.