Electricity workers in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s successor companies on Wednesday shut down power stations in the country including the biggest power station in Nigeria, the Egbin power station, during the national workers’ strike.

PHCN’s Executive Director, Operations, Mr. John Ayodele, told our correspondent on Thursday on the telephone, that efforts were being made to bring the Egbin power station and others gradually into operation by Thursday evening.

Ayodele said it would take some time to bring all the stations back into operation.

The shutdowns caused a nationwide blackout between Wednesday and part of Thursday.

However, analysts said the action was unusual because in previous nationwide strike actions, electricity workers hardly shut down power stations.

It was gathered that the shutdown was, apart from the strike, a result of the unhappiness of the workers over the plan to privatise the nation’s power sector.

However, the workers on Thursday said their inability to restore power supply to Nigerians in most part of the country was due to the continued occupation of the PHCN‘s installations and stations by armed soldiers.

They named the stations under occupation as Egbin Power Station, Ikeja West Transmission Station, Ayede Transmission Station in Ibadan, Oyo State, Benin Transmission Station, Kano Zonal Office, Kainji and Jebba power stations and Gomo station in Kwara State.

According to the workers, the organised labour called off its warning strike to compel the Federal Government to implement the N18,000 new Minimum Wage on Wednesday, armed military personnel were dispatched to PHCN installations nationwide, allegedly on the orders of the Federal Government.

The statement reads, ”: ”It has become expedient to explain to the public why power supply has not been fully restored to some parts of the country after the warning strike by NLC has been called off. At the end of the strike action, armed military personnel were dispatched to PHCN installations nationwide, arguably on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

source

P.S. having the station up and running is one thing, being able to take up all the available load is an entirely different thing and it takes as much as a week. it shouldn't but we dont have the equipment that can help(well we do but they aren't working).

by the way, notice how the workers tell you lies about why there's no electricity. . .i wouldn't be surprised if most of the staff talking dont know.

netotse:



I know you've probably heard a lot about how people/companies 'run generators for 24 hours' but that's an exaggeration,

exaggerwetin?

i have three generators

daddy gen 5kva run during day
mummy gen 2kva run during day/evening
babygen 1kva run at night

and i'm middle middle class

what do you think the upper middle class and upper class do?

most organizations in corporate nigeria have some sort of high load, low load generator setup

every telecomms base station has 2 (duty and backup) generators

and i haven't even started on the quality of power when it is available

stabilizers, surge arresterss, ups

we are doing some serious solution engineering in my office because of the incompetenec of those diots from phcn who cannot be sanctioned for phase reversal, over voltages etc, which play havoc with multimmillion naira data centers

nepa brought the light back at about midnight but it went 1st thing in the morning.

I think that if someone wants to make money off the electricity crisis in Nigeria, all that one needs to do is:
1- Build a factory
2- Import fsome solar panels
3- Use the solar panels to power the factory
4- Create solar panels in the factory
5- Sell them solar panels!!!!!!!!

oyb:

exaggerwetin?

i have three generators

daddy gen 5kva run during day
mummy gen 2kva run during day/evening
babygen 1kva run at night

and i'm middle middle class

what do you think the upper middle class and upper class do?

most organizations in corporate nigeria have some sort of high load, low load generator setup

every telecomms base station has 2 (duty and backup) generators

and i haven't even started on the quality of power when it is available

stabilizers, surge arresterss, ups

we are doing some serious solution engineering in my office because of the incompetenec of those diots from phcn who cannot be sanctioned for phase reversal, over voltages etc, which play havoc with multimmillion naira data centers

Why not go solar?

MShittu:

I think that if someone wants to make money off the electricity crisis in Nigeria, all that one needs to do is:
1- Build a factory
2- Import fsome solar panels
3- Use the solar panels to power the factory
4- Create solar panels in the factory
5- Sell them solar panels!!!!!!!!

WOW . . . . powering a factory with solar will be very very expensive considering the consumption rate of factory machinery.

Kobojunkie:

WOW . . . . powering a factory with solar will be very very expensive considering the consumption rate of factory machinery.

Yeah, but that's only with conventional solar panels, i remember an article on www.gizmodo.com about a new innovation in solar panels that doubles the amount of energy produced.

http://gizmodo.com/5666674/a-solar-power-breakthrough-courtesy-of-the-guy-who-invented-the-super-soaker
-the link

I hadn't seen this before now. Nice to know. I do hope it gets out there quickly so at least companies can start taking advantage of it.

oyb:

exaggerwetin?

i have three generators

daddy gen 5kva run during day
mummy gen 2kva run during day/evening
babygen 1kva run at night
only you all three?. . .i hail o!
and i'm middle middle class

what do you think the upper middle class and upper class do?

most organizations in corporate nigeria have some sort of high load, low load generator setup

every telecomms base station has 2 (duty and backup) generators

and i haven't even started on the quality of power when it is available

stabilizers, surge arresterss, ups

we are doing some serious solution engineering in my office because of the incompetenec of those diots from phcn who cannot be sanctioned for phase reversal, over voltages etc, which play havoc with multimmillion naira data centers

so you're telling me that you can go 72hours without light? if your answer is yes, then maybe

1.The business manager in your area 'committed'. . .lol
2.The distribution transformers in your area are bad and keep tripping off.
3.The operators in your area dont like y'all. . .lol
4. etc etc ati bee bee lo. . .

my point is that, no one will set out to leave people in darkness on purpose(unless you're me of course. . . ). Y'alls resident's association should go and talk to the service manager at the undertaking closest to you now. . .it just might help. Kobo's right sha, you should consider solar.

the voltage fluctuation thing cant be blamed on PHCN alone, we the consumers have to bear part (if not most of the blame), esp the ones wey get more than one phase at home without any load balancing, (na the illiterates for distribution wey dey aid and abet usthem i blame), the amount of instability that thing can cause is not pure at all o. . .

my experience in distribution is severely limited but in transmission, when the voltage is extremely low, we adjust the taps to increase the voltage, but changing taps too frequently can damage the transformer so most times, management will eventually tell you to leave the tap changer alone. It means eventually you wont be able to do anything about the low voltage in your region. [size=5pt](kai see nostalgia. . .e don tay since i run shift for control room o. i miss them days )[/size] nobody does it on purpose.

as per the phase reversal, are you guys three phase customers around a large number of 1 phase customers? that's when it'd be a problem, maybe you guys should tee off at 33kV, the grid is much more stable there. The only alternative is to install variable frequency drives(VFDs). Y' all should be able to talk to PHCN people now. . .the higher-up the people you talk to the better, most of them distribution people know very little about these things esp the younger staff.

maybe one of these days i should write an article about the dynamics of power supply, the public does more harm to the grid than PHCN itself and yet they are the first to blame PHCN when stuff goes wrong.

as per the solar article, make i go read am first before i talk. . .

okay read it, seems promising, it'll be a long time before it comes into the market though. . .

PHCN WORKERS MUST REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO NITEL. NITEL STAFF SAW THEMSELVES AS SACRED BUT LOOK AT THE SITUATION TODAY. PHCN, THE INEVITABLE MUST HAPPEN. THAT IS JUST THE REALITY. VERY UNSERIOUS AND CORRUPT MEN.