TCN says ongoing projects will boost power grid by additional 4,000MW

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Tuesday said the ongoing projects being executed by the company would boost the national power grid by additional 4,000 Megawatts when completed.

The acting Managing Director, TCN, Mr Sule Abdulaziz, said the company had acquired new office for its Project Implementation Units (PIUs) created to enhance the delivery of projects.

Abdulaziz who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, said the projects would add about 4,000 megawatts to the national grid when completed.

He said the PIUs were specialised unit of TCN that would ensure critical transmission line and substation projects were delivered within specification, quality and timeframe.

According to him, the new office for the PIUs houses four project units financed by donor agencies.

He listed the donor agencies to include, the World Bank, Agence Française de Developpment (AFD), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The managing director said the company had ensured that the offices were conducive for the TCN project managers, engineers and support staff in line with international standards.

Abdulaziz added that the project units were already implementing projects that would enhance the TCN’s 8,100MW grid capacity.

“Management is also making such efforts in the mainstream TCN which has enabled the company to successfully transmit successive all-time generation peaks achieved in the power sector, the latest being 5,801.60MW,” he said.

Also speaking, the General Manager and Coordinator of the PIU office at TCN, Mr Joseph Ciroma, said that presently, there were many ongoing projects being supervised by the PIUs.

He said the AFD-funded Abuja high voltage transmission feeding scheme was currently ongoing, adding that all the six contracts under the project were effective.

“The project will bring an additional 330kilovolts (KV) transmission line through Lafia, bringing to three, the source of bulk power transmission into Abuja.

Ciroma said the World Bank project unit would address a nationwide transmission upgrade as over 30No power transformers would be affected during the substations upgrade.

He explained that 30 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) transformers would be replaced with 60MVA and 100MVA depending on the planned capacity upgrade for the substation.

“The 30MVA transformers that will be removed will be installed in areas with lower electricity demand. This will invariably, add to the capacity of the network.”

“The African Development Bank project unit is working on strengthening the 330kV Alaoji (Abia State) to Onitsha (Anambra State) transmission line.

“The line currently evacuates only 400MW of power but after the line is re-conductored its capacity will increase to 1,200MW which is three times the current capacity.

“AfDB will also fund a new transmission line from Benin to Delta to increase power evacuation on that route from 400MW to 1,200MW.

“And also another new 1,200MW capacity transmission line that will complement the 400MW capacity line running from Kaduna to Kano,” he said.

Ciroma also said that the JICA-funded project unit targets transmission projects in Lagos and Ogun States where the TCN would build four 330kV substations, two 132/33kV substations and four 120MW capacity 330kV transmission lines.

He said that these lines would also connect the West African Power Pool (WAPP) to enable Nigeria export more power when the projects were completed.

The general manager sad that the TCN had recently installed a new 60MVA, 132/33kV power transformer in its Kubwa substation, Abuja.

He said the new power transformer radiated three feeders, including the Usuma Dam, Dawaki and Deidei feeders.

“The feeders will make more bulk electricity available for Abuja Disco to take to its consumers in the areas concerned,” he said.