The transmission Company of Nigeria has heaped the problems of system collapse on the distribution companies that have refused to take the loads that are allocated to them.
Usman Mohammed, managing director of TCN in an interview with Channels Television said the refusal to take allocated loads by the
He blamed on 11 Electricity Distribution Companies for rejecting load thereby forcing TCN to Ram down their Load with attendance damages to the Transmission & Generation components of the Nigerian Power Grid Infrastructure
However some industry players are of the believe that massive load rejection can cause system collapse but that the distribution companies do not have such massive load that can cause system collapse supplied to them at any point in-time. “I cannot think of such massive rejection from the distributing companies”, a source disclosed to BusinessDay.
They said that there could be some obstructions to the transmission lines by trees which may have fallen on the lines because of serious storms or heavy rain. When such tree falls on transmission lines they said it may cause a trip in the system which may cut off supplies from the machines in order to protect machines.
They still put the problems squarely at the door step of TCN.
Usman Mohammed, who also spoke extensively on several investments made by Federal Government of Nigeria viz the Transmission improvement drive of the present administration however admitted that there are gaps in the critical components of the Grid .
He said Federal Government has secure funding to procure SCADA to reinforce the communication backbone of the grid as a part of a comprehensive Roll Map of National Grid Automation.
He also said that in days to come,
TCN will acquire Spinning Reserve.
“However, all of these are subject to timely approval of the request by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission ( NERC)”
He said the revenue accruable it is on the basis of ratio 20: 80, adding that with less than 30% the Transmission Company is seemingly incapacitated financially.
The TCN he said has been up to date in three years cycle of audited account in line with Global best practices.
He said this has made TCN bankable, globally competitive and attractive to foreign direct Investment and other forms of Institutional Investment.
Olusola Bello
