In January 2016, the country had attained the highest grid supply of 5,019MWs but was soon short-lived and fluctuated between 1,500Mws and 3500MWs.
However, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola at the 22nd monthly meeting with Operators in the power sector, hosted by the Kogi state government and Geregu Power1 plc, Ajaokuta on Monday, attributed the development to collaborative efforts of key stakeholders in the sector.
“I am happy to report that in the last month, reports and feedback confirm that we have surpassed not only our peak of grid supply during the rains, we have surpassed Nigeria’s highest ever peak grid supply.
“As at Tuesday 5th of December 2017, the peak supply reached 5,019 MW, which was below the 5,074 MW we achieved in January 2016.
“However, on Friday 8th December, 2017, grid-supplied power peaked at an all-time high of 5,155 MW, over the January 2016 figure of 5,074 MW.
“It is a major milestone in our journey of incremental power and if we keep our feet on the ground and we remain focused and unexcited, we will improve on it, and hopefully get to the second leg of our journey which is steady power.
“No one person can claim individual credit for this progress. It is the product of teamwork starting from the leadership provided by President Buhari, many people in Government and in your companies who the public will never see, but all of whom I salute for their service; and of course the hard work by all of you.”
He stressed that although the sector has made development in terms of incremental power, more still needed to be done to ensure stability.
“While I value the work that you have done, I will implore you to remember that Nigerians expect more and there is still a lot of hard work ahead.
“The fact that we can produce over 7,000 MW and can now only put over 5,000 MW on the grid means that we have 2,000 MW of unused power left in a country where many still require power.
“This is a new problem that we must resolve,” he added.
and then