By Emmanuel Addeh
The federal government has formally inaugurated the 2X60MVA, 132/33KV Gagarawa substation in Jigawa, with a warning to Nigerians to halt the vandalism of public power equipment throughout the country.
Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman, who spoke during the event, explained that the project was designed to upgrade power supply to the industrial hub of the state and its environs to promote economic activities and increase revenue generation.
In addition, Mamman noted that it was expected to boost supply of electricity to several local government areas of Jigawa state. He said as part of government’s efforts to address challenges of power infrastructure in the country, it recently commissioned the 150MVA 330/132KV Kumbotso transmission substation in Kano.
The minister explained that the construction of a 132/33KV transmission substation in Kabba, Kogi State and the commissioning of the132KV Katampe-national stadium transmission line project as well as the new 330/132/33KV substation, New Apo, Abuja were also geared towards upgrading the country’s power infrastructure.
“It is necessary at this point to share the fact that the ministry of power has launched its Central Data Management System (CDMS), which is a digital platform for electrification, planning and monitoring under the umbrella of the Nigeria Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative.
“The system has led the foundation for the digital transformation of power networks across the country. This initiative is part of our efforts to digitalise the Nigerian power sector using innovative digital technologies and processes that will help address many of the key challenges that our power sector is facing today, such as Internet of Things (IoT).
“We recently launched the national mass metering programme supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to urgently and immediately address the metering gap and eradicate estimated billing in the sector.
“Under the initial phase of the Presidential Mass Metering Initiative (PMMI), of supporting the Discos with the much-needed financing for the bulk acquisition of 1,000,000 Meters, the installation of which is at no cost to the consumers, we have already started deployment in parts of Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and Abuja,” Mamman stated.
While calling on Nigerians to protect public assets, the minister argued that doing so was also in the interest of customers, some of whom had lost their lives in the process of by-passing electricity meters.
“On the part of the consumers, I wish to call on the valued customers of all Discos to desist from tampering with electricity meters and other electricity equipment.
“This is not only on account of protecting the revenues of Discos but also related to the safety of customers as there have been reports of consumers losing lives in the course of by-passing meters,”Mamman said.
In his comments, Acting Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Sule Abdulaziz, stated that the company was working towards further expanding the capacity of the nation’s transmission grid.
“This is a very good opportunity for me to introduce our new roadmap in TCN, the Nigeria Electricity Grid Maintenance, Expansion and Rehabilitation Program (NEGMERP).
“This is a well a thought-out programme with the objective of delivering quality bulk electricity supply to Nigerians while giving equal attention and priority to all transmission lines and substation projects across the length and breadth of the Nigeria.
“This programme which is anchored on the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) has the following major components: all federal government funded projects, all international donor funded projects, all Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) projects, the Siemens intervention projects and all in-house projects and Service Level Improvement projects.
“This Gagarawa transmission substation project is one of the several ongoing projects under TCN that were abandoned at a very advanced stage of completion by the last administration for no good engineering or project management reason. It will take care of suppressed load in Gagarawa and environs.
“It will deliver more bulk electricity to some load centres of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), for onward transmission to consumers in Jigawa state and environs,” he noted.
