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From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has faulted a claim by the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) to the effect that TCN wasted over 2,500MW due to grid unreliability, arguing that the average available generation capacity across all 28 power plants connected to the grid in 2026/Q1 was 4,457.96MW.
According to TCN, the figure was declared to the system operator, not a transmission-wheeling limit set by TCN.
In a statement, TCN said that the 4,500MW ceiling, which the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) attributed to the grid, is in Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC’s) records, the average capacity GenCos declared available.
The report recorded that the average available generation capacity across all 28 power plants connected to the grid in 2026/Q1 was 4,457.96MW, a figure GenCos themselves declare to the system operator, and not a transmission-wheeling limit set by TCN.
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In its submission, TCN’s verified wheeling capacity stands at 8,700MW, far above any volume of power ever actually generated.
“Setting aside the average figures above, TCN’s own verified transmission wheeling capacity now stands at 8,700MW, following sustained investment in transformers, substations and transmission lines. That figure is not a projection; it is a confirmed operational capacity, far above the 4,500MW” ceiling in the report
“The clearest evidence that this capacity is real, rather than theoretical, is what the grid has already carried. On March 4, 2025, the national grid transmitted an all- time peak of 5,801.84MW, delivering a record 128,370.75MWh of energy within a single day, the highest daily volume in Nigeria’s history. That peak, still the highest ever recorded, was wheeled out by the grid without incident and remains comfortably within the network’s 8,700MW capacity,” TCN said.
Earlier, GenCos under the auspices of Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) had argued in a report published by a national newspaper that over 15,500MW is being throttled by a grid that can only wheel around 4,500MW.
APGC is quoted as stating that Nigeria’s stranded power crisis is a transmission failure and not a generation failure.
