The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) disclosed it had increased power transmission capacity beyond 8,100 megawatts recorded in 2018.
Managing Director of the TCN, Usman Mohammed, the transmission company currently has plans to build capacity to evacuate 10,000MW of electricity. He added that the installation of 68 transformers and the construction of transmission lines across the country between 2017 and October 2019, had aided the growth of the country’s electricity evacuation capacity.
“I can tell you that from 2017 to October 2019, we installed and inaugurated 68 power transformers across the country and the least among them is the 30MVA transformer installed in Gombe. The rest of them are 60MVA and above.
“It’s no longer business as usual; any contractor that refuses to do what he is supposed to do, we cancel the contract and complete the job,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed explained that the last simulation of the grid was done in December 2018. It moved from 5,500MW to 8,100MW and noted that the intention of the government was to build more transmission lines, as some areas had high transformer capacities but the lines supplying them power were not adequate.
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“Some of such lines include the recently launched Ikeja West-Alimosho-Ogba to Ota transmission line. We also want to do the Birnin-Kebbi to Sokoto and Ituaba to Itu line; Onitsha-Awka line; Awka-Oji River and the Kaduna-Zaria-Funtua lines, among others.
“Once these lines are rebuilt, the country would recover significant capacity that had been limited. Afterward, we will simulate the grid capacity again and this will clearly move our capacity well above 10,000MW,” he said.
Meanwhile, the TCN boss also stated that the recent study carried out by Ikeja and Eko DisCos showed that the country’s transmission capacity was more than 8,100MW.
“This is because, according to the report, the operational capacity of the two (Ikeja and Eko) business units is almost about 4,000MW, so we are looking at almost 25% of the capacity we have in Nigeria in Lagos.
“That means that what they have reported shows that we are far ahead what we projected,” he stated.
However, Mohammed noted that the maintenance and expansions being carried out are being done under the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) of the Federal Government. The objective of TREP is to expand the grid to 20,000MW by 2023.