From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government says it has committed $800 million to the construction of substations and the extension of distribution lines under the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI).
The strategic investment, it noted, would address critical challenges within the nation’s electricity grid, ensuring more reliable and efficient power delivery across the country.
This comes as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), said it has capacity to transmit 6,000 MWS of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide.
Mr Sule Abdulaziz, the Managing Director of TCN said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
The TCN boss said that the company had installed new transformers to ensure increase in capacity.
However, during a recent facility tour of TBEA Southern Power Transmission and Distribution Industry in Beijing, China, Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, announced the details of the investment.
According to him, the $800 million will be divided equally between two major projects: Lot 2, which focuses on building substations for the franchise areas of Benin, Port Harcourt, and Enugu distribution companies, and Lot 3, which will develop both substations and distribution lines for the franchise areas of Abuja, Kaduna, Jos, and Kano distribution companies.
The Minister’s visit to China was part of his participation in the China-Africa Cooperation Summit, where he emphasised the importance of these projects in stabilizing and expanding Nigeria’s power distribution network.
He expressed concern over the current inefficiencies in the sector, highlighting that despite a peak generation capacity of 5,170 megawatts, the inability of distribution companies (DisCos) to absorb the full supply resulted in a 1,400 megawatt shortfall.
“It is disheartening that we had to scale back on power generation due to distribution constraints, especially when we are on track to increase our generation capacity to 6,000 megawatts by the end of the year,” Adelabu lamented.
He stressed the necessity of upgrading the infrastructure to ensure that the increased power generation can be fully utilised and effectively distributed to meet the nation’s demands.
Adelabu also highlighted the Federal Government’s commitment to collaborating with global industry leaders like TBEA to realize President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope vision for Nigeria’s power sector.
The vision includes not only enhancing the transmission and distribution capabilities but also integrating renewable energy sources into the national grid to create a more sustainable and resilient power system.
Addressing the longstanding issues within the power sector, the Minister pointed to the outdated and deteriorating state of Nigeria’s transmission and distribution infrastructure as a significant barrier to consistent and reliable power supply.
“Our power infrastructure has been a major impediment to industrial growth, with many businesses forced to rely on self-generated power due to the unreliability of the national grid,” Adelabu noted.
Despite these challenges, the Minister expressed optimism about the ongoing efforts to transform the sector. He cited the recent increase in Nigeria’s power generation capacity from 4,000 megawatts to 5,170 megawatts within a year as a promising sign of progress. “While this increase may seem modest, it marks a significant step forward given our historical difficulties in expanding power generation,” he said.
Looking towards the future, Adelabu outlined the government’s ambitious goals, which include reaching a power generation capacity of 6,000 megawatts by the end of the year and achieving 30 gigawatts by 2030. Of this, 30 percent is expected to be derived from renewable energy sources, including hydroelectric power, solar energy, and wind power from both onshore and offshore installations.
On the topic of the national grid’s capacity to support these goals, Adelabu acknowledged that the current grid is insufficient. “The existing network cannot sustain the long-term vision we have for the power sector, which is why the construction of Western and Eastern super grids is essential,” he explained. The Minister reported that the government has already secured most of the necessary approvals for these super grid projects and is moving swiftly to finalise them.
Huang Hanjie, President of TBEA, expressed the company’s strong support for Nigeria’s power sector goals. He commended the progress made under Minister Adelabu’s leadership and reaffirmed TBEA’s commitment to contributing to Nigeria’s target of 6 gigawatts by December 2024 and 30 gigawatts by 2030. Hanjie also confirmed TBEA’s interest in participating in the super grid project, offering the company’s extensive expertise to ensure its successful implementation.