The Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Engr. Sule Abdulaziz, has assured that about 400 megawatts of power will be available for the northern part of the country tomorrow.
Engr. Abdulaziz gave the assurance on Tuesday at a Press Conference organised to update Nigerians on the current state of repairs of the vandalised Shiroro-Mando transmission line—a critical infrastructure that supplies electricity to the region.
For some days now, some states in the north have been without electricity supply due to the vandalisation of the transmission line. The power outage has paralysed economic activities in the states, bringing untold hardship to the people.
TCN had attributed the delay in the speedy restoration of the line to the prevailing security challenges in the area.
Although President Bola Tinubu has ordered the security agencies in the country to provide adequate security for the TCN engineers to effect repairs, Engr. Abdulaziz informed that the company is working to reroute bulk power supply through the Ugwuaji-Apir 330kV line to the region.
While acknowledging that the alternative Ugwuaji-Apir line also failed recently due to vandalism, the TCN MD assured that the engineers are working to effect necessary repairs.
“As I am talking to you now, our engineers are working to restore the line. But even in that area, we have to get a military escort before our people can work. And any time it is getting to 6pm, they have to leave the place and go back to a safe place, sleep there, and come back in the morning.
“As I am talking to you now, Line 1, which can carry 400 megawatts, is going to be ready between today and tomorrow. The second line is going to be ready latest on Sunday, November 3, 2024,” he said.
Speaking on efforts so far made to protect the transmission lines from vandals, the MD said, “We have been cooperating with the owners of the land, the security agencies, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Nigeria Police to make sure that they patrol the transmission lines. We also engaged the locale and provided them with transportation and phones so that if they see anything happening to our transmission lines, they will quickly call us.”
On the option of using helicopters to survey the transmission lines, he said, “during the time of NEPA, it had helicopters that were used to patrol the lines. But with the creation of TCN, all those helicopters are no longer in use. There was a proposal we gave two years ago to buy helicopters. So that is still ongoing. We need finances and approvals to achieve that.
“Even if you use helicopter to locate the vandalism site, our engineers cannot move in to effect repairs because of the security challenges. We need the security agencies to make the place safe for us to work,” he said.
Engr. Abdulaziz disclosed that TCN was working to stabilise the national grid through the use of the SCADA System to become one of the best in the world.
He restated that the company was not responsible for all the grid collapses in the country. Explaining that some of the collapses were caused by the generators and distribution network.
In his brief comment, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North, Abdullahi Tanko Yakassai, said the people in the north are worried over the outage in the region, but affirmed that the TCN is working day and night to restore power back to them.
He noted that the outage was not a deliberate act to frustrate the north, adding that President Bola Tinubu is very concerned about the incident, assuring that the presidency would work closely with the management of the TCN to ensure that the power is fully restored back in a couple of days.
