Power to stabilize as TCN clears abandoned 454 parts containers at seaports
After years of endless controversies, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced clearance and delivery of 454 power equipment containers that were abandoned by contractors at various seaports across the country.
Business Hilights gathered that the containers had been abandoned since the era of Goodluck Jonathan administration due to waiver controversies.
The containers had been abandoned at the ports for between two and six years by contractors for various reasons, including suspension of the TCN Import Duty Exemption Certificate in 2013 by the Ministry of Finance; slow processing of the IDEC by the firm in the past; and inefficiency of the contractors.
In a statement, TCN also revealed that the country recorded peak generation of 5,222.3 megawatts of electricity, effectively transmitted through the national grid on December 18, 2017 at 9pm.
TCN is the arm of power sector that is still controlled by the government while the private sector, manage both generation and distribution.
According to the General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Ndidi Mbah, the new generation height was the highest that had been recorded in Nigeria’s power sector even though evacuation is still less than what was generated due to infrastructure and load rejection by Discos.
Following the delivery of the hitherto abandoned equipment, TCN said it had developed the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme to enable it execute critical transmission projects.
TCN noted further that this necessitated the clearing of the stranded containers carrying transmission equipment, adding that the move would enable it to complete previously abandoned projects and expand the grid’s capacity.
The statement said “Of the 759 containers abandoned by contractors at the seaports 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”.
It explained that all the 454 containers cleared from the ports had been taken to construction sites in Yola, Gulak, Katsina, Jos, Dambatta, Ganmo, Abeokuta, Onitsha and Benin.
Other construction sites are Odoguyan, Ede, Igangan, Okene, Walalambe, Akwanga, Kachia, Kumbotso and Kaduna.
