Yemisi Izuora
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, said the Nigerian Power industry has achieved yet another national peak of 5,222.3MW of electricity effectively transmitted in the national grid.
In a statement signed by the GM Public Affairs Ndidi Mbah, TCN said that this milestone achievement, is the highest ever recorded in the nation’s power sector to-date which she said surpassed the 5,155.9MW achieved on December 8, 2017 and the earlier peak of 5,074.70MW, achieved on February 2, 2016. This latest achievement was recorded on December 18.
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.
At the 22nd Power Sector Stakeholders Meeting, the Minister of Power Works and Housing Mr. Babatunde Fashola 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 prioritize and execute critical transmission projects. This necessitated the clearing of the company’s stranded containers carrying various transmission equipment at the sea ports, to enable it complete previously abandoned projects to further expand the grid capacity.
Of the 759 containers abandoned by contractors at the sea ports 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 containerscleared 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 includeOdoguyan, 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.