The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has disclosed that the over 100 power projects of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) abandoned were politically established by past administrations.
Incensed by the development, the Minister declared that no new projects would be allowed until the abandoned ones were completed and put to effective use.
Chief Adelabu disclosed this during a Press Conference on the power sector issues and way forward recently held at the Power House, Maitama, Abuja.
He said: “We have projects that were politically established in the past. We have 2001 project. We have 23 year old project. 15 year old project. The youngest is 2011.
“We have committed the country’s money, but we are not getting the benefit of these investments. We are not optimising such. During my time, we will not tolerate that.
We have “resolved to complete a reasonable proportion out of the over 100 ongoing uncompleted TCN projects for Transmission improvements.
“No new projects for 2024 as the focus will be on completing ongoing projects abandoned due to cost escalation from variations and fluctuations in contract price”, Minister said.
Chief Adelabu said, efforts would also be intensified to resuscitate the abandoned 26 small and medium size Hydro plants across the country with Solar hybridisation.
This, he said, would adopt an embedded power model with connectivity to the regional DisCos distribution network.
While speaking on plans to revisit the abandoned 15 IPP Solar plants in the Northern part of the country, and developing an IPP solar auction with the support of the World Bank, the Minister also disclosed plans for the completion of the 20MW Wind/Solar hybrid power plant in Katsina State and completion of infrastructure required for complete evacuation of the abandoned 30MW Gurara Dam Power Plant.
Adelabu who was elated over the recent completion of the 700MW Zungeru Hydro Power Plant in Niger State, said, plans are ongoing to finance the required infrastructure to enable complete evacuation of the 40MW Kashimbila Hydro Power Plant in Taraba State using the Promissory Note facility at the Debt Management Office (DMO).
On plans to bridge the transmission infrastructure gap, the government would accelerate the Presidential Power Initiatives on the Siemens Project with the completion of the Pilot phase of the project and commencement of Phase One to increase transmission capacity to 8,000MW. Disclosing that TCN had already taken delivery of 10 Siemen transformers and currently being installed.
He said, the government was also accelerating talks on the EPC+F super grid projects with two Chinese firms for the Western and Eastern Grid for failover/backup capacity for the National grid to achieve grid stability and capacity expansion.
Adelabu further revealed that there were plans to upgrade old and weak 330KV and 132KV transmission substations with new and higher capacity transformers, reactors, and other accessories.
He also disclosed plans to reconduct existing aging transmission power lines. Speed up intervention projects funded by loans from multilateral development partners like the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)aimed at impairing transmission infrastructure.
He also disclosed the Ministry’s readiness and commitment to full implementation of an automated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system during his time as the Minister to effectively monitor the power grid.
The Minister who said, the 60-year-old problems of the sector could not be resolved in a year, expressed determination to face them head-on in the overall interest of the country.
