TCN raises N540bn to stabilise national grid, clears 655 abandoned containers in ports
Indications have emerged that Nigeria will soon begin to see stability in power considering the efforts made by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to clear 655 power equipment containers that were stranded at various seaports in the country for more than 15 years.
First tranche of the stranded containers had been cleared few months ago when it was discovered that over 800 containers were abandoned at different ports across the country for more than a decade, adding that some of them had been auctioned.
Besides, the company had also raised about $1.57b (N540b) through its Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme in the last few months.
Explaining more on the developments, the Managing Director, Usman Mohammed, who spoke at a workshop on the review of the TCN Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition-Energy Management System and Telecoms Feasibility Study report in Abuja, said “We have recovered 655 out of over 800 containers stranded in Nigerian ports. And this was as of last week. Also, some of the containers were in the ports for over 15 years, while others had been auctioned, but we’ve traced them and recovered them”.
He observed further that in order to stabilise the grid for effective service delivery, the TCN had to, among other things, attain the mandatory effective SCADA-EMS and telecoms facility for the country’s power System Operator to efficiently manage and control the grid.
According to him, “Detailed national grid operational data is not easily accessible to managers, operators, regulators, policy makers, customers and observers in a secure and unfiltered manner. Instruction to distribution companies to increase or decrease off-take at trading points is still done manually using ad hoc communication.
“Available load is still allocated to generation companies manually using ad hoc communication without acceptable levels of transparency. Supervision and control of the lines, breakers and substations for effective response to normal and unexpected incidents is still not automated and data-driven.”
