The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Sunday disclosed that it recorded new national peak with the transmission of 5,222.3 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity into the national grid on Dec. 18.
TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, said in a statement in Abuja that the achievement was the highest ever recorded in the nation’s power sector to-date.
Mbah said the current peak transmission surpassed the 5,155.9 MW attained on Dec 8, and the 5,074.7 MW earlier recorded on Feb 2, 2016.
She said TCN developed the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion programme to enable it prioritise and execute critical transmission projects, to properly key into the incremental power policy of the Federal Government.
“ 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 has yet to be made,” she said.
Mbah further explained that all the 454 containers cleared from the ports had been taken to its various construction sites in Yola, Gulak, Katsina, Jos, Dambatta, Ganmo, Abeokuta, Onitsha and Benin.
She said that other construction sites that the containers had been deployed to included Odoguyan, Ede, Igangan, Okene, Walalambe, Akwanga, Kachia, Kumbotso, Kaduna and Yola.
According to Mbah, the containers had been abandoned at the ports for 2 to 6 years by contractors for various reasons.
One of the reasons, according to her, included suspension of TCN’s Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) in 2013 by the Ministry of Finance.
She said other reasons were 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 reiterates its commitment to continue to work to further stabilise, rehabilitate and expand the grid,” she said.
Mbah urged all Nigerians to assist the company in safeguarding electricity installations nationwide.
