By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has revealed its decision to raise the transmission wheeling capacity to 10,000 megawatts (mw) by re-conductoring seven critical lines nationwide this year.
It also revealed that it has recovered 775 stranded containers from 800 units abandoned for over 10 years at the ports, adding that the contents have been used to complete several substations including the brand new Damaturu, Maiduguri and Ilashe substations.
TCN Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, disclosed this Wednesday night in Abuja at a quarterly press conference, where he stated that by December 2018, TCN achieved an 8,100mw wheeling capacity and hopes to step it up in 2019.
Mohammed stressed that as part of effort to attain the 10,000MW, TCN would procure quad conductor, a high capacity conductor that could carry more bulk power capacity on the same transmission line.
He stated: “The conductors which we procure are lighter than the current conductors and can carry two and a half times more power. Half of these conductors are arriving Nigeria on the 27th of this month.
“These seven critical lines include Onitsha-Awka-Oji River line, the Ikeja West-Alimosho-Ogba-Ota line, and the Alimosho-Alausa line. The rest are, Kaduna-Zaria-Funtua-Gusau line, Birnin Kebbi-Sokoto, Aba-Itu, and Kumbotso-DanAgundi 132kV transmission line.
“By doing that, we are going to recover between 2,000 and 3,000mw which means the grid will shift from 8,100mw to at least 10,000mww.”
The managing director also gave updates on some critical transmission projects TCN was executing with the $1.661 billion multilateral donor funding it has secured.
While fielding questions from journalists, Mohammed noted that there was need for the distribution companies (DisCos) to step up investments in their networks.
According to him, “We had a problem in Benin and Apo, these are some difficulties we have passed through, but the journey for stable grid is on track. Everything we are doing on the grid will amount to nothing except we have some investment on the side of distribution.”
