TCN: North-East Power Transmission Capacity Increases By 100%

The power transmission capacity in the North-East has increased by 100 per cent, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has said.

According to the TCN, the transmission capacity in the region doubled after the recent installation of two 330kV transmission substations in the North-East.

This came as TCN’s Managing Director, Usman Mohammed, told our correspondent in an exclusive interview in Abuja that the firm had established a task force to monitor the frequency control of the grid in order to ensure that power generation companies abide by the grid code on frequency management.

On December 13, we exclusively reported that the TCN in its bid to avert system collapse declared that electricity generation companies that failed to comply with the stipulated frequency control that ensured the stability of the power grid would be removed from the grid.

TCN had explained that the failure of some power generators to stick to the prescribed frequency control was contributory to the instability in Nigeria’s grid, a development that occasionally led to power system collapse.

When asked during the interview on Sunday to state other measures being put in place to further check system collapses caused by frequency abuse, Mohammed replied, “We’ve set up a team to monitor the frequency control and they report to me directly.

“The aim is to ensure that we achieve and maintain the desired frequency of the grid. You could see that the grid has stabilised for some period.”

On the transmission capacity in the North-East, he said, “We have concluded and energised two 330kV substations in the North-East, which is a 100 per cent increase on the capacity that is existing in the whole of North-East.

“The North-East had only two 330kV substations but we have added two, making it 100 per cent increase. However, are we there? No, we are not yet there but we will get there.”

The TCN boss further stated that the transmission company secured different financial support from multilateral agencies in 2018 and that the funds had helped to improve power supply in various locations across the country.

Mohamed said, “A recent poll was conducted by Channels Television on how people feel about electricity and 73 per cent said that they feel that power supply has improved. Of course, it is not that we don’t have problems here and there, but on the whole, things are not as they used to be. There is an improvement.

“The NBS’ (National Bureau of Statistics) recent document stated that power generation, transmission and distribution have improved by 18 per cent and that is a considerable improvement.

“Also in 2018, we were able to get approval for most of our projects under the Transmission Expansion Programme.

“We have the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project which is $486m and has been approved by the World Bank. We also have the Northern Corridor project which is $275m with €25m grant inside it and this has been approved by the board of AfDB (African Development Bank).”