TCN Targets 20,000mw Electricity Transmission by 2021

Shola Oyeyipo in Abuja

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has set a target of 20,000 megawatts of electricity transmission by 2021.

The Managing Director, TCN, Mr. Usman Mohammed, who made this known Monday when he presented the company’s 2018 scorecard to State House correspondents in Abuja, said efforts are geared towards giving Nigerians adequate supply of electricity.

“We have established transmission, rehabilitation and expansion programme. The main objective of this is rehabilitate, stabilise and expand the delivery capacity of TCN to at least 20,000 megawatts by 2021 and we are on track,” Mohammed said.

According to him, the transmission capacity has been improved by over 3,000 megawatts between February and December 2018, an indication that the rehabilitation and expansion programme in the power sector is on track.

He however explained that the increase in transmission capacity has not translated in distribution because of the imbalance in the ratio of demand to supply.

He also stated that international donors have injected a total the sum of $1.6 billion to finance critical electricity transmission and distribution projects that will facilitate improvement in electricity transportation to end users.

Boasting transparency and better project implementation capacity under the new management, Mohammed said the procurement process of the Abuja Ring Scheme has reached an advanced stage, and that the two contracts for the lines have been signed and the remaining lots for substation projects have been evaluated and submitted to AFD.

He said it will fund five new substations and a new 330 KV transmission line to Abuja through Lafia, adding that it is an entirely a green field project.

He named five notable projects which the body is carrying out to include: Abuja transmission ring scheme, financed by the French Development Agency which attracted $170 million; the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Access Project (NETAP), a $486 million project financed by the World Bank; Lagos-Ogun Transmission Project, costing $200 million, financed by Japanese International Agency (JICA); Northern Corridor Transmission Project to be financed by French Development Agency and European Union at $245 and €25 million respectively and Nigeria Transmission Expansion project to be financed by the African Development Bank at the cost of $410 million.

According to him, the NETAP started with advanced procurement in 2017 and was approved by the board of the World Bank in February 2018. He stated that the procurement of the project has reached advance stage but is yet to become effective because it is still awaiting approval and the legal opinion of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice.

He said it is a brown field aimed at upgrading most of the transmission substations to N-1 redundancy criteria, adding that the Lagos-Ogun project was inherited from the past management of TCN and has been completely scoped, designed with some major aspects already completed.

He noted that the project was delayed due to issues of compensation. They include the construction of five substations and associated 330KV and 132 KV transmission lines in Ogun State and 132 KV substation in Badagry in Lagos State.

The appraisal of the Northern Corridor project was completed on September 28, 2018 and has been approved by the board of AFD and EU recently, he said.

However, the project will include building two new 330KV double circuit transmission lines; Kainji-Birnin Kebbi-Sokoto and Kastina-Daura-Gwiwa-Jogana-Kura line.

It will also include the reconstruction of one out of the two old Shiroro-Kaduna 330KV single line into a quad line, and built four 330KV substations in Sokoto, Jogana and Bauchi.

While the AfDB financed NTE project will involve the reconstruction of the Alaoji-Owerri-Ontisha 330 SC line and the Ughelli-Benin 330KV line into quad lines as well as the construction of 330KV quad line between Kaduna to Kano and fund several 132KV transmission lines in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

Mohammed commended the federal government for the improvement in electricity supply to the citizens, but warned that the distribution companies must increase their investment in infrastructure without which the results of the huge investment in generation and transmission will not be noticed.