NAPTIN To Commission New Electricity System

The Managing Director, National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Mr Reuben Okeke, says the institute will soon inaugurate a SCADA /Smart Grid to ensure power stability in the country.

SCADA is a supervisory control and data acquisition or computer system that monitors and controls industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes.

Smart Grid is a digitally-enabled electrical grid that gathers, distributes, and acts on information about the behaviour of suppliers and consumers.

Okeke told The Tide on Thursday that SCADA would assist the power sector in ensuring that challenges in the industry such as power transmission and distribution, and energy consumption were identified and resolved.

“We are going to commission a SCADA and Smart Grid either in July or August this year.

“SCADA is automation and with its help, one will know exactly what the distribution man is doing with the system anywhere in the country.

“It has Remote Terminal Unit which enables an engineer at the National Control Centre, Osogbo, to give command to an engineer, in Benin for instance, to switch- off a particular unit of power.

“If the engineers in Benin fail to do so, the one at the national control centre, Osogbo can do that by the press of a button”, he explained.

He emphasised that SCADA and Smart Grid work hand-in-hand, adding that with the system, an engineer in Kainji could determine the amount of electricity flowing on the electricity network in any part of the country.

“It is a tool, technology has brought into the system to enable engineers manage networks and it makes the work easier for the operators,’’ he said.

Oke lamented that in 1978 when he joined PHCN, the staff were adequately trained but the training stopped because the Federal Government funds started dwindling.

According to him, NAPTIN is working towards funding itself financially so that it can continue to train people in the institute without depending on government, pointing out  that NAPTIN had established eight regional centres in the country which would be adequately equipped for the training of Nigerians and foreigners.

The NAPTIN boss said that when the centres start functioning, it would generate a lot of revenue for the Federal Government, just as government would still have to finance the institute because of its high capital-intensive nature.

He cited an example with the  NAPTIN of India which was established in 1965 but still got subvention from the government.