Business
Expert Decries Power Supply Challenges
An engineering expert and member of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Sampson Uyouko has expressed great concern over the challenges facing power supply in Nigeria since its inception in 1951 Company of Nigeria (ECN).
Engr. Uyouko who is also the General Manager, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Port Harcourt Branch said this in a paper titled, “Wheeling Power in Niger Delta: The Journey so far”, he presented at the NSE monthly congress meeting in Port Harcourt.
According to him, “the sector had been facing a lot of challenges ranging from lack of enough manpower, obsolete equipment, kidnapping, unavailability of spare parts, as well as unfavourable environment that involved the corridors, topography and terrain”.
It would be recalled that the Electricity Company of Nigeria (ECN) was established in 1951 while Niger Dams Authority was established in 1961 before a merger of ECN and NDA took place in 1972 which resulted to the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) and recently Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in 2005 with 18 companies that privatized PHCN into generations, distribution and transmission in 2012. The expert further stated that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Port Harcourt region was created in July 2007 and was carved out from the former old Enugu region with its regional office located at Rumuobiakani, Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout Road.
He explained that the region covers six states across South-South and South-East Geo-Political Zones of Nigeria, which include Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Imo and Rivers State.
He noted that technically, the Region Comprises of four sub-regions and one works centre, which includes Aba sub-region, Afam, sub-region, Calabar sub-region, Port Harcourt sub-region and Owerri works centre.
Engr. Uyouko stated that the region has a transformer capacity of 2560 MVA, eight No. 330/132/33KV sub-stations, 22-132/33kv sub-stations, 1446km of 330KV lines and 662km of 132kv lines.