• Friday, March 29, 2024
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TCN insists that it transmitted 5,000mw

TCN

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has insisted  that  the country generated 5,000 megawatts of electricity on February 7,2019 but  that  the challenges of  distribution  companies  did not allow the impact of the improvement  to be felt  by Nigerians .

TCN also  stated  that it  has the capacity  to wheel 8,000 megawatts of electricity  currently but  that  it is handicapped  by  the challenges  facing distribution  companies.

Ndidi Mba , general manager, public affairs TCN told BusinessDay  that her organisation  is in the best position  to know what was generated  in  the country at any particular  time by the various  generating  companies.   “All of them send what they generate to TCN individually.  We collate these figures and add them up. So now you see that we know what we are saying”.

Stakeholders have questioned the essence of TCN  celebrating the transmission of 5,375mw that lasted just a few minutes.

TCN transmitted a peak generation of 5,375MW on the 7th of February 2019 which was regarded as peak generation for that day.  Peak generation is actually the generation for a particular day to meet maximum demand for the day, which is usually for a couple of minutes and not for the whole day. Over a day, load demand and utilisation change on a second by second basis, an industry operator said.

The nation has the capacity to generate 13,000 megawatts.

Average available generation capacity has been on the average 8,000 megawatts daily.

But Load approved for daily distribution has been between 3,700 megawatts – 4, 800 megawatts and on very rare occasions 5,000mw.

The limitation or inability to go beyond these thresholds are linked to the dynamics of Tariff Shortfalls ; Market Shortfalls ;  Market Settlement Crises which borders on Low Market Remittances of between 25% – 30% attributed to the foregoing.

She  however lamented that distribution  companies  are  the  weakest  link  in  the power  value  chain, as either they are not  able  to take the load  because of  infrastructural  problems or they out rightly  reject the supply meant for them because they fear they may not be able to make available the monetary value of electricity they take to the market operator.

According to her, TCN will continue to improve on the infrastructure on ground so that more electricity can be wheeled to stakeholders for the benefit of all.

“We will continue to increase the capacity of transmission which is what the agency has been doing for some time now”, she said.

Meanwhile, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy on incremental power,TCN has completed the installation and commissioning into service of one brand new 300MVA 330/132/33kV power transformer in its Alaoji Transmission Substation and has also successfully transported a brand new 150MVA, 330/132/33kV power transformer from the port to Kumbotso Transmission Substation in Kano, to replace one of the four (4) 150MVA transformers taken out for repairs.

The brand new 300MVA power transformer, energised on February 12th, 2019 in its Alaoji Transmission Substation, has increased the station’s installed capacity from 450MVA to 750MVA which makes it the biggest substation in the southern part of the country and has also made the station consistent with redundancy requirement of N-1.

With this development, TCN has increased its capacity to supply Enugu Distribution Company for onward supply to particularly Abia North (Ohafia, Arochukwu, Item, Abriba) Imo State (Okigwe, Arondi-izuogu), parts of Ebonyi and Rivers State.

TCN further stated that the following projects under construction will also benefit from the newly energised 300MVA transformer; 4No 132kV substations at Okigwe (Imo state), Mbalano, Ohafia and Arochukwu (Abia State) which are awaiting completion. The newly energised 300MVA transformer will also enhance evacuation of power generated into the 132kV grid network from the Alaoji NIPP and Afam Power Stations. The installation of the transformer was carried out by Messrs Power Control with active support of TCN.

 

Olusola Bello