The power Distribution Companies (DisCos) have supported the call for effective coordination and the alignment of all electricity equipment improvement projects being executed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Generation Companies (GenCos) and the Distribution Companies (DisCos) as a key success factor towards attaining the country’s electricity supply goals.
This comes on the backdrop of the recently concluded Public Hearing by the Senate Committee on Power on Tuesday.
A statement by Barrister Sunday Oduntan, the Executive Director of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), said at present, the lack of coordination in the power sector has hampered the efforts of the sector towards improving power supply to Nigerians.
ANED said there are cases where the DisCos are not carried along in the transmission expansion project of TCN even when the DisCos are the ones relating directly with electricity consumers and know where they require power supply the most.
“TCN is building a series of transmission facilities but they are not in good proximity to the load distribution centres of the DisCos. The farther the transmission facility is to the load distribution centre, the higher the losses, the more the bill for the consumer.
“This is a concern for us and we want the federal Government to intervene and ensure that there is coordination of the expansion project. This will be of more impact to the Nigerian electricity consumer,” Oduntan said.
The Minister of Power, Engr. Sale Mamman, recently said that he was ensuring effective coordination of all agencies and value-chain of the power sector towards realising the 7,000MW national grid distribution capacity through the first phase of the Siemens deal.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswam, had last Tuesday reiterated this call for coordination of the TCN, GenCos and the DisCos who are the value chain of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
Suswam said, “Once there is alignment and proper coordination of the sector, that if we generate 13,000 megawatts (MW) and transmission can take 10,000MW and DisCos are able to absolve that and there is proper tariff, it makes the sector solvent.
“The sector becomes liquid and so once there is money in the sector, other potential investors will come in and the banks will be able to put more money,” he noted.
