Planned Protest: FirstPower Absolves Self From Blackout In Anambra

Ahead of the protest planned for tomorrow against the perennial blackout in most parts of Anambra State for several months, the company in charge of electricity supply in the state, FirstPower Electricity Distribution Company (FirstPower) has absolved itself from the sad situation.

The company’s head of Communication, Mr. Izunna Okafor, attributed the blackout to “serious gas supply shortages affecting thermal power plants, which generate the majority of the country’s electricity.”

Expressing his company’s regrets and sympathy with the customers and other stakeholders over the situation, Okafor pledged that the company was working to improve on her responsibilities under the situation.

“We fully understand the inconvenience and disruption that irregular electricity supply causes to households, businesses, institutions, and industries.

“As a company responsible for electricity distribution in the state, we believe it is important to further provide transparent and factual explanations to the public about the current situation”, he stated further.

Stating that the drop in electricity supply is not peculiar to Anambra State, nor  caused by any operational failure by his company, the FirstPower image-maker appealed to the organisers of the tomorrow mass protest to consider dropping the action.

“We are aware of reports indicating that some customers are planning protests over the current electricity situation.

“FirstPower, as a company, understands and respects the constitutional rights of citizens to peaceful expression and public demonstration.

“However, we wish to respectfully appeal to the public to understand that, as comprehensively explained, the present electricity shortage is fundamentally a national generation challenge, not a problem created by FirstPower or EEDC, neither is it a challenge specific to Anambra State”, also stated.

Meanwhile, residents of Anambra State under the auspices of Electricity Consumers Rights Network in collaboration with an activist, Comrade Osita Obi -led civil society group, Recover Nigeria Project has perfected arrangements, including giving notifications to the state police command, DSS, and, other relevant security agencies concerning the planned “civil unrest ‘ slated tomorrow (Saturday) against the perennial electricity supply failure in the state, and, other sundry fraudulent practices allegedly associated with the electricity supply company in the state, especially bogus billing.

But responding to some of the concerns in his statement, the FirstPower head of communications stated that the Nigerian electricity sector operates through a three-tier value chain, which according to him include “Generation Companies (GenCos) which produce electricity; Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) which transmits electricity nationwide; and  Distribution Companies (DisCos) which distribute electricity to end users.

“FirstPower operates only in the third and last (Distribution) segment of this chain, meaning that the company does not generate electricity and does not control the volume of electricity transmitted/sent to the state.

“Electricity distributed by FirstPower is generated by GenCos, allocated through the national grid and transmitted through infrastructure managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

“The drop started late last year when there was an explosion at Escravos-Lagos gas pipeline on December 10, which disrupted operations of some power plants.

“The issue was fixed after about two weeks, and steady supply was restored. Then in January, the issue of the Federal Government debts to GenCos surfaced again.

“GenCos operate thermal power plants that use natural gas to produce electricity.

“They connect their power plants to the national grid, allowing them to transmit generated electricity to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for distribution. GENCos sell electricity to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, which acts as a creditworthy off-taker, ensuring payment to Generation Companies.

“Through this deal, the money owed to the GenCos reportedly rose to over ₦6 trillion as at early 2026. This was further complicated by the alleged debate that recently emerged between GenCos and the FG over the actual amount owed.

“Delving deep into the controversy about the actual total amount of the liability may not be necessary here.

“The most important point is that Generation Companies are owed, and that has weakened their ability to procure gas to fire their power plants to operate optimally and produce the required quantum of electricity.

“As we may know, the recently-triggered and ongoing Israel/US—Iran War has also caused immediate scarcity of and spike in prices of petroleum products, further complicating the issue in the Nigeria’s energy sector.

“Nigeria’s power sector relies heavily on gas-fired plants, which supply more than 70 per cent of electricity on the national grid.

“Recent operational reports from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) show that national generation has dropped significantly because thermal plants are receiving less than half of the gas required to operate optimally.

“For instance, thermal power plants require approximately 1,588.61 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to operate optimally.

“However, only about 652.92 million standard cubic feet have been available in recent periods.

“This severe shortfall has forced several generating units to shut down or operate below capacity, thereby resulting in a significant reduction in electricity available on the national grid.

“In February, as a result of these gas challenges and its effects, national electricity generation dropped to around 4,300 megawatts, far below demand.

“Moreso, recent shutdown of some more units caused a further reduction of about 292MW in available generation on the grid, thereby reducing the electricity available for transmission to distribution companies nationwide.

“Consequently, grid operators have had to implement load shedding nationwide to maintain system stability. This ongoing load-shedding and maintenance works on major transmission lines (including the Mando-Shiroro transmission line) have significantly affected transmission nationwide.

“Since all Distribution Companies depend on the same national grid, the reduction in generation (occasioned by gas supply shortage) automatically translates to reduced allocation to every state and every distribution company across Nigeria, which EEDC, FirstPower, and Anambra State are not exceptions”, Okafor stated further.

He continued: “In Anambra State, electricity supplied to FirstPower comes through four TCN interface stations, namely: Awada, GCM, Agu-Awka, and Nibo interface stations.

“Before the current generation constraints, the average daily allocation to these interface stations in Anambra State was approximately as follows: Awada = 84.92 MW; GCM = 32.50 MW; Agu Awka = 26.42 MW; Nibo = 20.82 MW. Total average daily allocation before = 164.66 MW.

“This was what FirstPower (or EEDC as at then) was distributing to its customers across Anambra State before.

“However, with the current reduction in national power generation occasioned by gas shortage, the average daily allocation to these interface stations in Anambra State is as follows: Awada = 40.45 MW; GCM = 12.65 MW; Agu Awka = 11.20 MW; Nibo = 9.82 MW.

“Total average daily allocation presently = 74.13 MW, as against the 164.66 MW it used to be.

“This represents a shortfall of about 90.53 megawatts, meaning more than half of the electricity previously being supplied to the state is currently unavailable/no longer getting to it. Other distribution companies in other states and regions also experienced such significant drop.

“Naturally, this drastic reduction makes it impossible for the distribution companies (including FirstPower) to maintain the same level of supply that customers previously enjoyed when generation was optimal.

“This is primarily the reason for the dropped supply and outages being experienced in Anambra State today”, FirstPower image-maker further stated.

He said that his company had to implement load management across feeders in the state as a result of the shortage.