The Federal Government on Thursday kick-started the implementation of the construction of nine 330 KV lines to deliver additional 624mw to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs,
At completion, the project will add 1,380MVA transformer capacity that is expected to improve power transmission and supply within Abuja and its environs as well as positively impact the socio-economic well-being of the people.
Speaking at the official groundbreaking ceremony in Dawaki-Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Dr. Louis Edozien, charged the Managing Director, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Mr. Ernest Mupwaya and the Generation Company, to ensure optimal utilization of the facility when it is completed in the next two years.
Edozien said that: “It is the distribution company that must play the role in taking this extra capacity and delivering it to customers. At the same time, the partnership also expects from the generation companies because if they don’t produce another 624mw, it is only the engineers that will at the end of two years admire the facility.”
He noted that the ministry aimed at an end -to -end delivery of electricity, which requires a crucial role of the DisCo, recalling that the financing partner, AFD, was into a distribution projects that did not go well in the past.
The Permanent Secretary insisted that it was “time now to reconsider a more purposeful and successful financing intervention at the distribution and retail end of the industry.”
It is, however, an irony that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is siting the project on the right of way of the high tension passing through Dawaki in Abuja.
The company is presently weeding out all structures on the right of way through out the country with the support of the state governors.
The TCN Managing Director, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, noted that the project was to tackle the problem of electricity transmission in Abuja.
He noted that the TCN saved about 25million from the procurement process of the project because the contractors were even ready to commence implementation before payment.
According to him, Transmission Rehabilitation Expansion Programme, which TCN was implementing was on course as all the components that included the frequency control has been achieved 65 per cent.
His words: “I am happy to tell you that as from achieved frequency control of 59.8 and 2Hz for 65% of the time from December 23 to date, being the best in the history of the country.”
He said that the company was enforcing the free governor control, which was targeted at attaining the best frequency control in West Africa.
He said that the TCN had also achieved the complete procurement of spinning reserve, which was undergoing the final consultation for the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for approval and deployment.
He added that the company had done everything possible to make the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) work having fixed all the deficiencies that inhibited the achievement in the past.
Mohammed said that the TCN has installed 40 transformers in the last two years, recovered 730 containers from the over 800 containers that were stranded in the ports.
