The board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved $210 million for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to build new electricity transmission infrastructure in the North-west, South-south and South-east regions of Nigeria.
The transmission projects will be built under the first phase of TCN’s Nigerian Transmission Expansion Project (NTEP -1), a statement from the General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, explained yesterday.
Mbah stated that the approval came from a board resolution of the AfDB after a meeting at its headquarters in Abidjan, capital of Ivory Coast.
The development followed a disclosure by the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, that Nigeria’s power sector has so far lost N567.824 billion to power production constraints such as inadequate gas supply, distribution and transmission infrastructure.
It showed the figure was N82.858 billion more than the N484.966 billion lost in the sector in the same period in 2018 – January 1 to November 28. About 3,563 megawatts (MW) of electricity were constrained from getting to the grid every day in 2019.
According to Mbah, the NTEP is one of the projects under TCN’s Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) financed by the AfDB.
She noted that it was targeted at rehabilitating and expanding parts of the transmission grid in these regions, adding that it would reconstruct old transmission lines and build new ones as well as construct new substations.
Mbah also said the projects would contribute to further increase in TCN’s transmission capacity, stressing that even though the approval has just been given, the TCN had already concluded their environmental studies including resettlement action plan in which people that would be affected by the acquisition of the Right of Way (RoW) for the proposed transmission lines were identified.
She stated that while the report had been submitted to AfDB, the TCN has also put out the advert for the pre-qualification of contractors for the project.
According to her, adopting the use of advance procurement in the execution of its projects has given TCN lead time and reduced procurement period by six months.
“The procurement processes for the project is about 70 per cent complete, meaning that execution of the projects under NTEP-1 would soon commence in earnest, even though it has just been approved by the AfDB board.,” Mbah said.
She further noted that the NTEP-1 projects would address some transmission lines and substations requirements in the region.
In the North-west, she stated that the projects that would be executed include the construction of 212 kilometre (km) Double Circuit 330 kilovolt (kV) Quad conductor from Kaduna to Kano; installation of 2×150 megavolt amp (MVA) and 2x60MVA transformers and bay extensions in Zaria; installation of 2x150MVA and 2x60MVA transformers with associated bay feeders and bay extensions in Kaduna Millennium City.
Others in the North-west would be the installation of 2x60MVA transformers and outgoing feeders in Rigasa Kaduna and the installation of 2x60MVA transformers and outgoing feeders in Jaji, Kaduna.
The substations would all have turn in and turn out transmission lines, she explained.
In the South-south and South-east, she said the NTEP-1 would reconstruct the 107km double circuit Delta-Benin transmission lines into a 330kV quad line; and reconstruct the 138km Alaoji- Ihiala-Onitsha Single Circuit line into 330kV Double Circuit Quad line.
The time frame for execution of all the NTEP-1 projects, she stated will be 24 months after award of contracts.
Source: THISDAY
