A power transmission facility.
The Federal Government has extended Manitoba Hydro International Limited of Canada’s management contract for the Transmission Company of Nigeria by a year.
The government took the decision despite the agitation by electricity workers that the contract should not be renewed as they vowed to seek all legal means to protect themselves should the deal be extended.
The Federal Government also confirmed that the TCN would be unbundled into two companies, and this would be facilitated by Manitoba.
The extension of Manitoba’s deal follows a three-year management contract signed in 2012 for it to manage TCN’s electrical power transmission, system operation and market operation undertakings, as well as train the transmission firm’s personnel.
The initial contract, which was signed by the TCN, MHI and the Bureau of Public Enterprises, will expire on July 31, 2015.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Mrs. Seun Olagunju, noted in a statement on Tuesday that MHI would continue to assume responsibility for the management and control of TCN’s entire operations, working alongside Nigerians to transform the company into a technically and financially efficient, stable and sustainable organisation.
She said working together with the transmission company’s employees, Manitoba had achieved a wheeling capacity of 5,300 megawatts of electricity and reduced system losses from over 12 per cent to approximately eight per cent.
“In addition, system collapses have reduced significantly from 22 in 2013 to nine in 2014, while the duration of collapses has reduced from more than 2.5 hours to approximately 30 minutes,” Olagunju said.
She noted that the fourth year of the contract would focus on further increasing TCN’s capacity to transmit power in the grid, in anticipation of rising levels of generation in the country.
“Additionally, MHI will facilitate the unbundling of the TCN into two new organisations, the Transmission Service Provider and the Independent System Operator, while simultaneously building the capacity of local management to take over the leadership of these organisations at the end of its contract,” Olagunju stated.
The Chairman of TCN’s Supervisory Board, Mr. Ibrahim Waziri, expressed satisfaction with Manitoba’s performance, noting that the Canadian firm would continue to play a role in TCN’s transformation and development.
“Working together, we expect to build on our achievements over the past three years,” Waziri was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, for the first time in about three years, the country on Monday recorded a new peak power generation of 4,545MW that surpassed the 4,517.6MW, which had been previously recorded as the highest generated power.
At 9.25pm on Monday, the new peak generation was recorded, thereby eclipsing the 4,517.6MW record set on December 23, 2012.
Figures obtained by one of our correspondents from the Presidential Task Force on Power revealed that the country had achieved the new electricity generation peak of 4,545MW through its national network.
Similarly, the TCN confirmed that the feat was achieved on Monday night, adding that it had the capacity to transmit the generated electricity.
The TCN management had last week stated that electricity wheeling to the distribution companies had improved to over 4,000MW due to improvement in fuel supply to the plants.
Energy generation on Tuesday was put at 4,049.78MW, the energy sent out was 3,958.22MW, while peak demand was 12,800MW.
Source: punch
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