‎TCN confirms spending $1.62bn in its Transmission Expansion Programme

The Transmission Company of Nigeria over the weekend confirmed spending to the tune of $1.62bn in its Transmission rehabilitation and expansion programme within the past three years.

The Transmission rehabilitation and expansion programme,the TCN said is to encourage stabilisation of the grid and ensure that Nigerians who are connected to the grid have access to consistent power supply.

TCN also confirmed that it has relied on the financial committments of key donor agencies comprising of: African Development Bank,the World Bank‎ ,the Japan International Cooperation Agency,JICA as well as ‘Agence Française de Développement‎ to drive most of its investments in Nigeria Transmission Expansion project to drive stabilisation of the grid.

Usman Gur Mohammed,the Managing director of the TCN gave the information during an interaction session with newmen in Abuja.

The Managing director further informed that the federal government is considering possible recapitalisation of the distribution companies in the country,to enable willing investors put in more in the sector,and drive efficiency and match up to the investment by the Transmission companies.

“Because of the the way things are happening in the Discos .Government took a step to invest in the Discos‎,and that is why N72 bn distribution expansion programme came up. Remember,government is still part owner of the Discos,that is why it is still investing in it.However,the recapitalisation is being considered for efficiency”he said.

‎”When we came in,the capacity of distribution was about 3000megawatts, the Transmission capacity as at then was only 5000megawatts,while Generation was 4000megawatts. Distribution now is about 5224 megawatts of power .Transmission moved to about 8100megawatts now,while generation moved to slighly above 7000″he said.

In his further remarks,the TCN Managing director said,”We have installed several Transformers,and we have discovered that the lines to carry those transformers are not adequate,that is the reason why we need more investments in the distribution for more power distribution”

He adds further that‎ Transmission Rehabilitation Expansion programme is also expected to expand the capacity of the Transmission grid to 20,000MW by 2021.

HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA