Joseph Bakare
As electricity generation increases in the last few weeks, indications have suggested that the Federal Government is already considering elevating more electricity consumers to Band A.
With the current generation increases Government believes it is sustainable and as such more Nigerians can comfortably enjoy a minimum of 20 hours of electricity supply daily.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), on Wednesday said it has achieved a major milestone in the nation’s power sector.
The Company said Nigeria has achieved a new peak power generation of 5,543.20 megawatts which reportedly occurred on Friday, February 14, 2025, at precisely 11:00 PM.
The occurrence showed it surpassed the previous record of 5,478.73MW, which was set just a day earlier, on Thursday, February 13, 2025.
Perhaps armed by this data, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheijen, while speaking on Arise News on Wednesday disclosed that the Government is interested in moving most electricity consumers in Nigeria to Band A.
Verheijen, explained that the plan is to energise the country, giving electricity to the underserved and unserved communities.
Government she said is planning to ensure that all customers are metered to know their consumption and improve cash flow to drive investments.
She emphasised that the current reforms are to make the sector more viable, favouring both the distribution companies and their customers.
“So, whether you’re a business, if you’re in an industrial cluster, you should see improved distribution capacity, improved reliability, and improved access. And that the Discos now have the capital and the cash flow to deploy more investment and infrastructure. So you should feel the difference in terms of service levels.
“The goal is that most customers in Nigeria become Band A customers, that is, they get over 20 hours of service. So you should be able to see that from these interventions,“ she stated.
Verheijen maintained that about 60 to 70 per cent of Nigeria’s gas goes to one sector, the power sector.
However, she said the gas companies have not been able to recover their funds from the power generation companies due to illiquidity in the power sector, saying “We need to diversify the uses of our gas. But you can’t diversify if the cash flows don’t work.”
On the distribution companies, she maintained that the privatisation of the power sector did not go through the rigorous exercise that could ensure that the people who bought the assets had the financial and technical capacity to make the investments that were required to drive reliability.
On the TCN statement, the Company said, “The Transmission Company of Nigeria is pleased to announce that the Nigerian Power Sector achieved a new peak generation of 5,543.20MW for the year 2025, On Friday, February 14, 2025, at 11:00 pm. This surpasses the previous peak of 5,478.73MW recorded on Thursday, February 13, 2025.”
In addition to the new peak generation, TCN also highlighted a significant achievement in energy distribution.
It added that the Maximum Daily Energy for the day reached an unprecedented 125,159.48MWH, breaking the previous record of 121,674.88MWH, set on February 7, 2025, by an impressive margin of 3,484.60MWH.
The Company confirmed that it successfully transmitted this new peak generation and maximum daily energy to the country’s distribution companies, ensuring that the power is efficiently distributed to consumers across Nigeria.