World Bank gives Nigeria 20-Year Transmission Master Plan

Fri, Feb 2, 2018 | By publisher


Energy Briefs

Fithner GmBH, a German firm develops a 20-year transmission expansion master plan for Nigeria with funding from World Bank

 

THE federal government has received a 20-year transmission expansion master plan, a new strategy document from the World Bank developed by a German-based power consultancy firm, Fitchner GmbH with funding from the bank.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, is expected to use the plan to continue its expansion works on Nigeria’s transmission network. The master plan was handed over to Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing, at a ceremony in Abuja, by Usman Mohammed, interim managing director, TCN, after Fitchner signed off on it.

The bank spent $2 million to execute the project conceived in 2009 after a national load demand study was done by another power consultancy firm, Tractebel of Belgium. With it, the minister of power, works and housing said the TCN would be expected to continue to improve its capacity to wheel out generated electricity in the country.

Fashola also said that at the moment, the transmission capacity of the TCN had grown to 7125 megawatts, MW, and that cases of stranded power would be dealt with by the new plan. The minister noted that future electricity generation capacities like the 3050MW Mambilla hydro power plant and others were factored into the plan which he added equally recommended that Nigeria was better served by its existing 330 kilovolt, KV, transmission lines.

Said he: “The government has given the TCN a mandate to improve its capacity to deliver its responsibilities to the Gencos and Discos. That mandate has not stood alone, it has been followed by policy approvals, and it has been supported by a budgetary commitment. That budgetary support has been helpful. As at yesterday, with that budget, we have been able to recover 502 containers belonging to the TCN, containing equipment for transmission expansion projects that were left at our ports.

“Those containers have travelled to their various intended destinations – TCN’s sites and substations, where work has resumed. Most of the TCN sites are now busy and some have been completed. So, that story of yesterday that TCN can only wheel 5000MW is not true because as at December when we did TCN’s simulated capacity, it was 7125MW and it is growing because works haven’t stopped.

“The real story why we are here today is that there is now a plan to address how TCN progresses. We gather to receive a 20-year transmission expansion master plan and we do it with all our stakeholders. You have heard very detailed analysis of how this plan will become reality and even Mambilla which construction has not started is factored in the plan, and presentations about what each Disco would do, how the plans of the Gencos would affect what we want to do,” he said.

– Feb. 2, 2018 @ 16:36 GMT |

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