Power distribution networks in various parts of Nigeria have been collapsing as a result of the rainfall being experienced across the country, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has declared.
According to the TCN and other stakeholders in the power sector, this and more were reasons why it has become vital for the Federal Government and investors in power distribution companies to recapitalise the firms in order to invest adequately in the networks of Discos.
TCN’s Managing Director, Usman Mohammed, disclosed this recently in Abuja while addressing interested parties who submitted tenders for the design, supply and installation of Optical Ground Wire across some transmission lines and Universal Transport Network Equipment at some substations for monitoring, control and maintenance of system operation facilities.
He said, “Another new dimension that speaks to why the distribution arm must be recapitalised is the fact that when it now rains anywhere across the country, the distribution network collapses like toilet paper. Even Abuja that was built as a modern city, three times it rained in Abuja for not more than 10 minutes, I drove round Abuja city centre and more than 90 per cent of Abuja has no electricity.
“Why? Because even the network that was built by FCDA (Federal Capital Development Authority), which is a public company, cannot be maintained by the private sector operator. They (private operator) have mismanaged and they could not manage it, to the extent that when it rains, Abuja network, which is supposed to be a modern network, collapses like toilet paper.”
Mohammed added, “This is how all over the country, their (Discos) networks are collapsing because of rain. I will give you another example, on May 21, the whole country had this problem of overvoltage. To the extent that we had a system collapse, we tried to bring the system back, but because of the dropping of load by the Discos, we could not secure anything but to force the system to collapse again.
“This was because if we had left the system for another five or 10 minutes, we would have had fire explosions across the country. And even with that, after we collapsed the system, we had explosions in various places like in Jebba, Shiroro and Jos. So that is how pathetic it is.”
The TCN boss argued that the over $1bn investments in the transmission had not been adequately felt by power users because of the poor networks in the country’s electricity distribution arm.
He said, “The Nigerien people are not connected to our network. They are connected to the distribution network. So the Nigerien people in a way do not feel what we are doing. But the fact is that even our equipment is not guaranteed because there is no investment in the distribution network.