Oscarline Onwuemenyi
14 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced that it has attained a wheeling capacity of 7,124 Mega Watts transmission capacity of electricity to the Distribution Companies (Discos).
The Information is part of the communiqué issued in Abuja at the end of the 24th monthly meeting of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, with operators of the Power Sector.
According to the communique, TCN also announced plans to expand its transmission lines through its Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) in line with its 20 Year Transmission Expansion Plan.
The communiqué reiterated Federal Government’s commitment to improving electricity service delivery through the development of policy initiatives like the N701 billion Payment Assurance Guarantee to generating companies.
It explained that other policies of government designed to improve services in the sector including the eligible customer regulations, metering regulations and distribution expansion plan to distribute the approximately 2000MW of generation capacity currently unutilised.
It further revealed that the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) noted that Federal Executive Council had approved valuation of approximately N27 billion debt owed by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to Distribution Companies.
It said the debts would be deducted from the current debts owed by the Discos to NBET, adding that NBET had applied to the appropriate agencies of federal government to pay an equivalent sum to the Generating Companies.
It said Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria (NDPHC) announced that Egbema and Okija communities were now connected to the national grid.
It added also that the connection equipment had been handed over to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company.
The communique further noted that significant progress was reported on Nnewi–Ihiala line, Ikot Ekpene-Afam and Daura-Kazaure lines.
According to the communiqué, NDPHC also noted that the committee to review abandoned distribution projects across the country has been constituted and should complete work by the end of the first quarter of 2018.
It said the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) reported on the performance of the sector in 2017.
It reported that “NERC noted an improvement by DisCos in complaint resolution, metering, and energy delivered in 2017, as compared to 2016. Eko DisCo was listed as the overall best performing DisCo.”
It added that TCN further reported an improved performance in 2017 compared to 2016, with a higher peak transmission of 5,222MW in 2017 against 5,075MW in 2016, even as it revealed that fewer system collapses and shorter interruption disruptions were recorded in 2017 compared to 2016.
It further announced that Olorunsogo I, Calabar NIPP and Omotosho I, were jointly identified as the best performing gas plants in 2017 due to improved availability, while Jebba was the best performing Hydro plant.
