Nigeria confronts transmission gaps headlong

Last week, the World Bank approved an International Development Association (IDA) Credit of $486million for the rehabilitation and upgrading of electricity transmission substations and lines as part of measures to improve supply.

Olufunke Olofon, Senior Communications Officer, World Bank, Nigeria, in an official statement stated that the investments would increase the power transfer capacity of the transmission network. Rachid Benmessaoud, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria said the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project (NETP) would help address key bottlenecks in the transmission network.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing recently said the Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN) has ramped up national grid’s capacity from 5,000MW inherited by the Buhari administration in 2015 to 7,125MW as at December 2017.

“TCN’s capacity to transport energy has steadily but surely grown to 7,125 MW as at December 2017,” Fashola said during the presentation of a 20 year grid expansion master plan for TCN submitted by Usman Gur Mohammed the Interim Managing Director/CEO, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in Abuja. “With more projects heading towards completion in 2018 and beyond, this capacity will increase.

The 20-year transmission expansion plan is meant to end an era of trial and error in the transmission expansion programme, said Fashola, raising concern about the capacity of the managers if all they have been doing were trial and error.

Begun since 2016, the objective of the plan is to complement the transmission, rehabilitation and expansion program and power sector recovery plan by establishing the long-term generation and transmission plan that meets the forecasted national electricity demand at the lowest economic cost.

The minister said this feat was achieved due to budgetary support which allowed TCN recover over 500 containers of goods and equipment left at the port for many years before the Buhari administration.

However, much support too has come from the World Bank and with this new $486million, the Bank hopes it will improve access to affordable and reliable electricity service to Nigerians.

Through this credit, the grid will further be strengthened to contribute to ensuring adequate and reliable electricity supply that is necessary for Nigeria’s continued economic development.

“The Federal Government is committed to addressing the challenges in the public-owned transmission network. The financing being provided by the World Bank under the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project power sector underlines this commitment,” says Fashola.

The minister further said, “The Federal Government anticipates that private sector financing in the privately-owned segments of the value-chain will complement the government’s efforts in bringing better quality service to citizens,” he said.

The NETP is part of the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) by the Federal Government, a comprehensive package of policy, legal, regulatory, operational and financial interventions that will restore the financial viability of the power sector. The measures which will be implemented through 2021 are aimed at improving transparency and service delivery and re-establishing investor confidence in the sector.

These investments are already bearing fruit with the recent installation of two 100MVA, each at Apo and Katampe which will increase the total wheeling capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), above 7,000MW. All the country needs to do is improve capacity to generate sufficient revenue to repay them.

ISAAC ANYAOGU