In line with the Federal Government’s policy on incremental power to boost electricity supply in Nigeria, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, recently commissioned a 2x60MVA, 132/33KV Transmission Substation at Odogunyan, Lagos State, to boost supply at Ikorodu and its environs.
The Odogunyan substation, which was supposed to have been completed seven years ago for poor funding, the Minister said, is aimed at improving capacity and performance of the Ikeja distribution company (Disco).
The substation, he noted, would release close to 90 megawatts (MW) of power to Ikeja Disco starting from next week, and this would allow optimum function of industries and residents around the community, since they would be catered for from a direct feeder.
This implies that there is enough capacity and redundancy for Ikeja Ddisco to improve the quality, quantity and stabilisation of power to end-users in the area.Fashola revealed that apart from that project, there were 90 others yet to be commissioned, which are at various levels of operations across the country, “so we are forging ahead because we have the momentum.”
He advanced that about 805 containers of equipment, which was held at the ports for over 10 years because of failure in payment of contractors have been cleared, and are on site to fast track the projects on ground.
The minister noted that towards the end of the year, distribution would be increased because all the 131 rural electrification projects have been completed nationwide, so the entire value change is being touched.He added that “Azura is going to start operations sometimes this month or early June, and that’s 459 megawatts added to the 2,000 we already have, Afam, which is 240 megawatt is coming too, but there is low investment in the distribution line.”
The Managing Director (MD) of Laga Cepower, (the contractors of the substation construction) Rhoda Afolabi mentioned funding as the major challenge citing that the project was suppose to take three years, but due to poor funding, it was extended to seven years.
Afolabi who said she couldn’t cost the project at the moment due to the long extension of it appealed to government to establish trust in the Nigerian companies to boost local content. In his remark, the Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Gur Mohammed, said there have been significant changes in the power value chain as generation has gone from 3,500MW to 7,000, transmission from 5,500 MW to 7,124MW, and distribution from 3,000MW to 5,234 MW between 2015 and now.
Mohammed while commending the Ministry under Fashola, said TCN had generated about $1.57billion under his watch, adding that the company plans to expand its grid to 20,000MW in the next three to four years.He however cited the challenge of bureaucracy in the system, as hindering optimum operations.
