The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said it needed $7.5 billion for the on-going five-year programme for the expansion of electricity transmission capacity to 11,500 megawatts by 2019.
The Managing Director of TCN, Mr Abubakar Atiku, said that part of the strategic plan was to boost transmission capability to 8,200MW by the end of 2018, to ensure steady power supply.
He said the target generation capacity would be realised with the completion of eight of its new projects in 2018.
He said the expansion was designed to ensure the completion of 59 projects by 2019 in line with the envisaged Federal Government’s realisation of 10,000 megawatts.
Atiku explained that the completion of the projects would eventually lead to a total transmission capacity of 11,500 megawatts.
He explained that the five-year plan had also been carefully developed with the overall aim of realising an uninterrupted power supply.
Given the breakdown of the measures envisaged to source the fund, Atiku said it was expected to receive concessionary loans and grant of $3.4billion from TCN’s support international finance agencies.
He said the Federal Government was expected to contribute $1.5 billion, while the financing initiatives of TCN were expected to contribute $2.6 billion dollars.
Atiku said that to key in to the incremental power plan of government, TCN had planned to realise the completion of 22 critical projects captured in the 2016 Budget.
He said that TCN had increased its present transmission capacity from 5,500MW to 6,00MW.
He added that efforts were on to increase the wheeling capacity to 7,500MW with the completion of 31 projects by 2017.
He said that TCN had increased its present transmission capacity from 5,500MW to 6,00MW, adding that efforts were on to increase the wheeling capacity to 7,500MW with the completion of 31 projects by 2017.
He said that TCN had restored unavailable service equipment to boost and strengthen the national grid.
According to him, with the restoration of critical equipment hitherto neglected by the previous management, the transmission system has been relatively stable with zero system collapse.
The MD said that TCN was focused at ensuring that no power was left stranded in the generating stations, adding that efforts were being intensified to ensure stability of the national grid.
