The nation’s power generation dropped by 2,684 megawatts on Monday as output from the hydropower plants and some gas-fired stations suffered operational hitches.

Available data provided by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing on the power generation trend indicated that 4,463.3MW of the total generation capacity was idle early on Monday, compared to the 3,631.4MW on Friday.

The decline in generation output was linked to gas supply constraints and frequency management hiccups associated with electricity distribution companies’ load demand which left 2,365.5MW and 2,087MW, respectively idle.

According to the data, total electricity generation, which stood at 3,462MW as at 6am on Sunday, fell to 2,684.20MW yesterday.

A furher analysis indicated that power generation from Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro hydro plants dropped to 203MW, 133MW and 162MWm, respectively on Monday from 275MW, 317MW, 376MW on Friday.

Similarly, Kainji’s unit 1G7 was reported to be down due to stator winding failure; 1G8 was also out due to oil leakage on governor runner head; and 1G9 was out due to burnt 7.5MVA 33/0.415kV and 183.6MVA 16/330kV station service transformer and generator transformer; while 1G10 was shut down due to thrust bearing temperature problem.

Also, the ministry reported that three units at Jebba, 2G2, 3 and 4, were be out on frequency management, while 2G6 was out due to burnt generator winding and automatic voltage regulator.

The report indicated further that Shiroro’s 411G1, 411G2 and 411G3 recorded decline in generation on frequency management challenge just as unit 411G 4 was out on maintenance.

The data showed that three hydropower plants generated a total of 1,293MW on January 5, representing about 36.7 per cent of the total national generation of 3,517.5MW that day.

Output from Egbin thermal station dropped from 567MW on Sunday to 436MW yesterday while six Geregu I, Geregu NIPP, Odukpani NIPP, Ibom Power, AES and ASCO power plants did not generate any megawatt.