TCN refutes Abuja Disco’s claim of system collapse

AN allegation by Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) that the national grid suffered system collapses several times recently has been refuted by Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

TCN, which described the information as misleading, claimed that there has been no such system collapse and AEDC was never restricted to power levels below its allocation. TCN also announced that electricity generation has steadily improved to over 4000MW with improvement in fuel supply.

General Manager (Public Affairs) of TCN, Seun Olagunju, in a statement, noted that his company is currently transmitting over 4000MW on regular basis to the electricity distribution companies nationwide. “It is public knowledge that the frequency of system collapse has been going down drastically following several equipment and infrastructure upgrade by TCN, besides aggressive capacity building of the system operators.

In 2013, there were 22 instances of system collapse, but in 2014, this was drastically brought down to only nine. This year, the transmission grid has experienced only four instances of system collapse out of which two in May were attributed to extremely low generation of around 1400MW due to gas supply shortages.

“In fact, majority of these cases of collapse were due to shortages in gas supply which created serious load/generation imbalance. But there is a serious effort ongoing to reduce these cases of collapse.”

Olagunju said TCN has secured spinning reserve contracts of 295 MW to provide stability and cushion the system in an event of sudden load/generation changeover.

“TCN affirms that it will continue to work at enhancing the transmission capacity and reliability of the national grid in order to provide improved and sustainable power delivery to the Discos,” Olagunju noted. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) has accused electricity distribution companies across the country of failing to imbibe basic safety standards in their installations.

This, the agency says, has exposed consumers to danger. To this effect, the agency has commenced inspection of electrical installations across the country to ensure compliance with standards and procedures. During an inspection of some installations of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (Abuja Disco) at the weekend, Managing Director of NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, frowned at the alleged poor safety practice noticed in Abuja.

He noted: “What we are doing today is monitoring and evaluation of errors and defects that have been detected. Our zonal offices had given instructions for the relevant utility companies and agencies of government to rectify these observations. We look out for what we consider to be dangerous to the society, accidents waiting to happen from bad networks which are in existence or being reworked as a result of new services that are being provided for the citizenry.”