A newly released factsheet by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revealed that electricity distribution companies supplied only an average of 5,506 megawatts (MW) of the country’s 13,625MW installed capacity to consumers in October 2025. This translated to just 40 per cent power plant availability for the month.
NERC noted that the performance was driven largely by the country’s top 10 generating stations, which accounted for about 80 per cent of total electricity delivered. The list included major hydro and gas-powered plants such as Egbin, Delta, Kainji, Shiroro, Okpai, Geregu, and Ihovbor.
While the output still reflected a shortfall in available generation, it represented a slight two per cent improvement compared to September. Despite having 5,506MW available on average, actual industry generation stood at around 4,290 megawatt-hours per hour (MWh/h), translating to an unchanged load factor of 78 per cent from the previous month. This, NERC said, highlights persistent structural challenges within the power sector.
Among the plants, Egbin Power Station led performance tables with a 50 per cent availability factor and a 90 per cent load factor, producing an average 591MWh/h. Delta Power Plant generated 347MWh/h on a 45 per cent availability and 86 per cent load factor.
Kainji Dam’s performance stood out, posting one of the highest load factors at 95 per cent despite having a 75 per cent availability rate. Zungeru, meanwhile, recorded perfect (100 per cent) availability but operated at a modest 47 per cent load factor, generating 330MWh/h.
Odukpani in Calabar delivered a load factor of 84 per cent despite recording just 31 per cent availability, pointing to persistent fuel supply constraints that limited operational uptime.
Other notable performances included Geregu, which remained one of the most reliable facilities with a 50 per cent availability and a 92 per cent load factor, producing 200MWh/h. Afam I returned a 91 per cent load factor on 114MW available capacity, while Geregu II operated at 110MW average availability with a 64 per cent load factor.
However, some major plants such as Rivers I, Okpai II, and Alaoji I generated no power during the month.
The NERC report also flagged continued grid instability resulting from voltage and frequency imbalance. Transmission voltage averaged 294.55kV on the lower band and 346.90kV on the upper band—both falling outside the prescribed limits of 313.50kV to 346.50kV.
Frequency likewise breached operational thresholds, with the lower frequency averaging 49.46Hz and the upper 50.69Hz, slightly outside the recommended 49.75Hz to 50.25Hz range.
The findings come days after the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, noted that the national grid has the technical capacity to safely transmit about 8,500MW. Adelabu, however, blamed the current output of around 5,000MW on misalignment between market demand and overall energy consumption levels across the country.
