The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says it will evacuate 10,000 megawatts (mw) of generated power in less than two years from now.
Managing Director of TCN, Sule Abdulaziz, said this while briefing State House Correspondents on Thursday.
He recalled that for the first time in the history of the country, the power sector recorded a peak generation of 5,801.84mw of electricity at 9:15 pm on March 4, and in less than two years, the TCN would conveniently evacuate 10,000mw.
Abdulaziz said the projection was based on the numerous TCN transmission projects completed in the last two years and new ones underway, as well as the 8,500mw current evacuation capability of the company.
He attributed the success achieved in expanding the transmission grid and increase in the nation’s capacity to the support of the Federal Government through the Ministry of Power, adding that in no distant time, Nigerians would celebrate the progress in the power sector.
“We are immensely proud of the governments’ commitment to moving the power sector forward. All hands are on deck to ensure we continue delivering on our mandate and providing Nigerians with the best possible service,” he added.
Speaking on the technical aspect of TCN’s operations, Abdulaziz said the company installed and commissioned 66 power transformers into service and also built new transmission substations, and re-conductored transmission line projects, among others.
“Some of the projects were executed under the World Bank sponsored projects, which is geared towards increasing TCN’s capacity by 9,000 MVA.
“Currently, projects amounting to 6,000MVA have been completed and connected to the grid, including the Rimin Zakara Substation in New Kano,” he added.
The managing director also disclosed that the World Bank was funding the upgrade of some brown field substation projects and that the FGN/SIEMENS power project had supplied a total of 10 mobile substations out of which seven had been installed.
He added that another 10 transformers of various ratings were also installed in the transmission network and connected to the grid.
“Our progress is also evident in the 76.47 per cent reduction in grid disturbances over the past five years. However, to enable us manage the grid in the absence of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) in place, we developed the Generation Load Drop Sensitivity (GLDS) system.
“The system detects and responds to sudden drops in power generation, preventing cascading failures,” Abdulaziz added.
He said additionally, all substations had now been fully digitised and automated, in addition to the deployment of an in-house Internet of Things (loT) solution to improve visibility of power generators.
