A new national peak of 5,222.3MW of electricity has been attained and this is expected to marginally improve power supply across the country as major parts of the country are still groaning over lack of electricity supply.
According to the Transmission Company of Nigerian (TCN), the new national peak of 5,222.3MW of electricity was effectively transmitted in the national grid on December 18, 2017, at 9 pm and this is expected to be sustained on the incremental basis from now on baring any on foreseen circumstances.
The TCN current capacity is about 7,000mw while the national generation capacity is put at about 12,000 MW.
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Ndidi Mbah, general manager of Public Affairs in a statement said that this milestone achievement is the highest ever recorded in the nation’s power sector to-date. This surpassed the 5,155.9MW achieved on December 8, 2017, and the earlier peak of 5,074.70MW achieved on February 2, 2016.
The statement noted that the gradual but steady improvement in the nation’s power sector is attributable to the strategy of the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari geared towards growing the Power Sector, in line with its policy on incremental power.
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Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing at the 22nd Power Sector Stakeholders Meeting assured that the current synergy among the Presidency, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and other major power sector stakeholders working through the Power Sector Recovery Program (PSRP) would continue to deliver improved power supply to the people.
To properly key into the incremental power policy, TCN stated that it has developed the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion programme to enable it to prioritize and execute critical transmission projects.
This necessitated the clearing of the company’s stranded containers carrying various transmission equipment at the seaports, to enable it to complete previously abandoned projects to further expand the grid capacity.
Of the 759 containers abandoned by contractors at the seaports within the last five years, 454 have been cleared from March to-date. Payment for 193 containers has been made and they are being cleared, while payment for the outstanding 112 containers is yet to be made.
TCN further explained that all the 454 containers cleared from the ports have been taken to various construction sites such as Yola, Gulak, Katsina, Jos, Dambatta, Ganmo, Abeokuta, Onitsha and Benin. Other construction sites include Odoguyan, Ede, Igangan, Okene, Walalambe, Akwanga, Kachia, Kumbotso, Kaduna and Yola.
The statement added that the containers had been abandoned at the ports for between 2 to 6years by contractors, for various reasons including suspension of TCN Import Duty Exemption Certificate(IDEC) in 2013, by the Ministry of Finance, slow processing of IDEC by TCN in the past and inefficiency of the contractors. The result was several uncompleted transmission projects in various parts of the country.
TCN reiterated its commitment to continue to work to further stabilize, rehabilitate and expand the grid and called on all Nigerians to work with the sector in safeguarding electricity installations nationwide.
