As Power Sector Falters, TCN Trudges On

That the power sector has been problematic for decades would be an understatement. But recently,  despite the general challenges besetting the sector, there appears to be a glimmer of hope from the transmission segment, writes Emmanuel Addeh

The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has in the last few months experienced a major decline in the distribution of electricity to consumers, leading to a corresponding increase in production cost of locally manufactured products and causing untold hardship to consumers.

Although as a unit, it is difficult for one segment of the sector to significantly make progress, without being pulled back by others, the transmission part of the power network has been silently upgrading its human and infrastructural assets in the last few months.

A Brief Background 

Handled by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), responsible for evacuating electric power generated by the Generating Companies (Gencos) and wheeling it to Distribution Companies (Discos), this ‘middleman’ in the grid, provides the vital transmission infrastructure between the generators and distributors.

Its job entails maintaining a network of power transmission infrastructure, through its three business units, namely the Transmission Service Provider (TSP), System Operator (SO) and Market Operator (MO).

As a background, the TCN emerged from the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) as a product of the merger of the transmission and operations sectors on April 1, 2004, and was incorporated in November 2005.

Being one of the 18 unbundled business units under the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), TCN was issued a transmission License on 1st July 2006, with the mission to transmit electricity most efficiently and effectively.

Its major activities include operating, expanding and upgrading transmission facilities for efficient and effective wheeling of generated electricity as well as building the transmission grid.

As part of its responsibilities, the company also pursues inter-connection with neighbouring countries for power exchange with associated cost savings from the sharing of reserve capacity and energy resources.

Pushing Despite Challenges

In January this year, President Muhammadu Buhari during a presidential media chat on one of Nigeria’s national televisions, declared publicly that the distribution remains a cause for concern in the sector.

According to him, this sub-segment of the industry cannot deliver on its mandate. He went further to say that at the time they were sold, the assets were given out as mere outlets for political favours.

On that same platform, the president had commended the performance of the TCN, saying the system had recognised the strength and technical capacity embedded in the government-owned company, further pledging to ensure the company operates at its best.

Again, at the weekly ministerial press briefing, at the presidential villa, recently, the Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, stated that the government will continue to improve overall power supply levels as investments have improved stability of the grid through the efforts of the System Operator under the TCN.

Aliyu stated that to this end, under the current administration, grid stability had drastically improved, stressing that in 2021, the nation only had two adverse grid events (partial or full collapses of the grid). This is in comparison to a peak of 42 events in 2010 and greater than10 events every year before 2020.

Although a lot of work remains to be done, without doubt, despite the challenges in the sector, the transmission segment has always been singled out for commendations by the authorities.

TCN Explains Load Shedding 

It is believed that the functions of the TCN are sometimes muddled up with the other players in the value chain.

To explain the issues, in a recent statement signed by the General Manager Public Affairs Division TCN, Ndidi Mba, the TCN explained that the issue of load shedding leading to the inadequate supply of power was a result of very low power generation by the Generation Companies (Gencos) for TCN to wheel through the transmission grid to distribution companies nationwide.

‘‘For clarity, TCN does not generate electricity and therefore can only transport cumulative generation from all the generation companies nationwide to distribution load centres.

“The distribution companies are responsible for end-user consumption. TCN allocates power to distribution companies based on an approved percentage (formula approved by NERC), of the total generation available per hour or on the day-ahead nomination,’’ it explained.

According to the TCN, generation companies have attributed the current challenge to several factors, including poor gas supply, fault in generating units of generating companies, scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, all of which have caused most power generating companies to limit their generation, and sometimes not generate at all.

Indeed, this position may not be easily faulted. A summary of the power generating profiles in the last two months, for instance, clearly shows that 14 gas-powered generating stations were either not generating at all or had limited generation at various times within the period.

This further depleted the quantum of power generation available for transmission into the grid daily.

Power generating stations in this category include; Omotosho units 5 & 6, Olorunsogo units 3, 4 & 6, Omoku units 3 & 6, Omotosho NIPP units 3 & 4, Delta units 15, 17, and 18, Afam VI units 11 & 12, Olorunsogo NIPP unit 3, Ihovbor NIPP unit 2, Sapele Steam unit 3, Sapele NIPP unit 1, Odukpani NIPP units 1 & 3, and Okpai units 11, 12 & 18.

Also, within the same period, Jebba Hydro and Shiroro Power Generating Stations were either out or had limited generation.

This caused an additional loss of 232MW from the grid, while other power generating plants such as  Omotosho units 3&4, Olorunsogo units 1, Delta units 10 &20, Afam VI  unit 13, Ihovbor NIPP units 4, Geregu NIPP units 22&23 and Odukpani NIPP units 2, 4 & 5, had also been out either due to a fault or for scheduled maintenance, causing a further loss of about 3,180MW from the grid.

The combination of these scenarios, TCN stated has persisted with the total effect on the grid being persistent low generation, which TCN operators have had to strive to dispatch in a way that will not jeopardise the stability of the grid.

Continuous Generation Shortfall 

More recently, from the 1st to the 4th of March, 2022, TCN insisted that there was a generation shortfall due to water management in Shiroro and Jebba hydro with the loss of 307MW and 125MW respectively from both stations.

Within the same period, there were fault and technical problems in Egbin, causing 514MW shortfall and in Geregu causing 230MW shortfall, while reported fault at Alaoji NIPP reduced generation from the substation by 263MW.

Gas constraint alone in Olorunsogo gas generating plant was also said to have reduced generation from the station by 104MW while in the same vein,  Omotosho gas lost 102MW and Sapele NIPP lost 263MW.

 In Omotosho NIPP, there was a generation shortfall of 233MW and in Omoku a shortfall of 112MW. Two units in Okpai had limited generation due to technical problems causing a 204MW drop in generation and Afam VI 511MW drop in generation. 

In addition, gas constraint and fault in Olorunsogo NIPP reduced generation by 240MW, Geregu NIPP by 435MW, and Ihovbor by 142MW.  Also, due to gas pipeline pigging, it was learnt that Odukpani NIPP was shut down which caused a reduction of generation by 575MW.

In defending itself, TCN further reiterated that a combination of issues ranging from gas constraints, fault, and technical problems within generating plants caused persistent low generation and consequently low load allocation to distribution companies nationwide, saying that the fault was not theirs.

“This is based on the fact that TCN can only transmit what is being generated by Gencos and presently they are all generating below capacity.

“It is important to note that except cumulative power generation increases considerably for TCN to transmit to distribution companies nationwide, TCN will be left with no choice than to continue to shed load,” it said.

 However, it stated that the company will continue to work hard to ensure the efficient allocation of the total load generated by the power generating stations into the grid, bearing in mind the need to ensure that the national grid is stable despite the challenges posed by the insufficient load on the transmission grid.

Reinforcing  Transmission Lines

The TCN has been carrying out a series of reinforcements of transmission lines across the country as well as a complete overhaul of its sub-stations to boost energy transmission and use.  

On different occasions, the Acting Managing Director, TCN and Chairman West African Power Pool (WAPP), Sule Abdulaziz, has declared that the company remains fundamentally committed to ensuring that the transmission of power is scaled up and strengthened to serve consumers better.

In this connection, the federal government has many key grid initiatives with more than N125.2 billion budgeted between  2015  to  2021 for TCN and development finance funding.

It is also to Abdulaziz’s credit that the human resource element in the power supply chain, especially those working at the TCN are being trained and retrained for the task ahead.

Ramping Up Funding

Some of these interventions are through the likes of the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AFDB) Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and others, to the tune of of up to $1.7 billion.

In addition, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is also providing funding of $250 million for the rehabilitation of critical interfaces between transmission and distribution to increase and stabilise power delivery.

Also, through the Siemens Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) the sector is expected to bring in an additional $2.0 billion transmission grid, going up to almost $4 billion secured by this administration to augment the grid.

Many of these funds, it was learnt,  are being actively spent and the results will be felt over time as the TCN works tirelessly to ensure that all of the investments translate to incremental delivered power.

Currently, there are 135 ongoing projects for transmission lines, substations and other associated grid infrastructure. The TCN has completed 30 key substation projects and 12 important transmission lines.

Some of the critical grid interventions across the NESI include the resuscitation of the second Egbin-Ajah Transmission Line and the recently commissioned NDPHC Lafia 2X150 MVA & 2X60 /132/33/330 KV transmission substation.

Other ongoing interventions include  330kV Quad Lines in Alaoji to Onitsha, Delta Power Station to Benin as well as the Kano to Katsina 330kV line.

There is also the important Lagos/Ogun transmission infrastructure project under JICA funding, plus the commencement of the implementation of the Siemens PPI with the purchase of 10 Mobitra transformers and 10 Substations.

The pre-engineering segment of the PPI contract, it was learnt, is already complete and the contract offers on 127 transmission and distribution projects (brownfield and greenfield) from Siemens is also ongoing.

Added to that, recently through the CBN intervention for transmission-distribution interfaces, the company has also awarded more than  30  substation rehabilitations and 1,570MVA transformer capacity upgrades with 34 critical transformers to be installed or replaced.

While all these are commendable, the hope is that they should translate to more efficient and reliable power for Nigerians soon, with the expectation that other parts of the value chain will also rise to the occasion.