TCN Needs N2.3trn to Wheel 10,000mw of Electricity

Fri, Aug 26, 2016
By publisher
4 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Power

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The Transmission Company of Nigeria needs about N2.3 trillion to wheel 10,000 megawatts of power in the country

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Sep 5, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT  |

THE Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, will require $7.5 billion (about N2.3 trillion) to wheel 10,000 megawatts, MW, of electricity in the country. The TCN also said that power distribution companies are still rejecting electricity load being allocated to them to supply to their various customers.

Abubakar Atiku, managing director, TCN, stated these on Monday, August 23, in Abuja, at a press conference where he said that part of the firm’s strategic five-year plan was to boost its transmission capability to 8,200MW by the end of 2018 to ensure steady power supply.

The company will actualise this by completing eight of its new projects in 2018.  Its ultimate expansion programme is designed to ensure the completion of 59 projects by 2019 in line with the government’s realisation of 10,000MW.

The completion of the projects would eventually lead to a total transmission capacity of 11,500MW. The company’s five-year plan was carefully developed with the overall aim of achieving uninterrupted power supply with the realisation of 20,000MW by 2022.

A breakdown of the TCN funding arrangement showed that it was expected to receive concessionary loans and grants of $3.4 billion from international finance agencies. The federal government was expected to contribute $1.5 billion, while the financing initiatives of the TCN were expected to contribute $2.6 billion to actualise the project.

According to Atiku, in order to key into the incremental power plan of the federal government, the TCN planned to complete 22 critical projects captured in the 2016 budget. He said the TCN had increased its present transmission capacity from 5,500MW to 6,000MW, adding that efforts were on to increase the wheeling capacity to 7,500MW with the completion of 31 projects by 2017. He said that TCN had restored unavailable service equipment to strengthen the national grid.

According to him, with the restoration of critical equipment hitherto neglected by the previous management, the transmission system has been relatively stable with zero system collapse. He also said the recent exit of a Canadian firm, Manitoba Hydro International, MHI, as the management contractors for the TCN, would save Nigeria about N10.4 billion ($34 million).

The federal government had contracted the MHI Nigeria Limited and the management contract was for an initial period of three years from August 1, 2012 to August 1, 2015. This was extended by one year to July 31, 2016. He denied claims that the TCN was the weakest link in the power sector value chain, stressing that blackouts were caused mostly by the Discos, who were rejecting power allocated to them.

Atiku said, “Let me assure the Gencos and Discos and indeed the generality of Nigerians that the TCN is determined to improve its services such that it does not appear and will not be the weakest link in the power sector value chain. At the moment, the weakest link is truly identified as those distribution companies rejecting customers load thereby throwing them into darkness. This results in the lowering of generation even though we have the capacity to generate more.

“I don’t want to mention the distribution companies that are doing this, but they know themselves. Most of them are load-shedding 11KV for two to three hours, and this is simply because they cannot pay to the market operator all the allocation given to them. So they use that technique or method to deprive customers of power.”

He argued that the primary interest of foreigners or expatriates was mainly the financial benefits from their engagement with Nigeria, adding that all funding commitments from international agencies with TCN under the management contractors remained valid. He noted that all contracts sealed with investors would be executed in line with the contractual obligations agreed by all parties.

Atiku allayed fears expressed in some quarters that with the termination of the management contract, TCN concessionary loans and grants by multinational funding agencies such as the World Bank will be withdrawn.

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