Grid collapse: ‘Our equipment is outdated,’ TCN MD calls for investment
The Managing Director and CEO of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Sule Abdulaziz has highlighted infrastructure challenges besieging the power sector, noting that much of the equipment is outdated.
This is just as he expressed optimism about achieving a consistent electricity supply across Nigeria within five years.
Abdulaziz revealed this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics program where he gave insights to the attributed the recurrent grid failures in the country.
“The transmission system needs a lot of investment and for so many years in this country that sector has been neglected, Most of the equipment we use is 50 years or 40 years. So it is not possible for those infrastructure to work perfectly.
On what the TCN is doing to prevent future collapse, Abdulaziz said it will implement a backup system to prevent nationwide blackouts in the event of a national grid collapse.
“Presently, we are doing the scatter system for the whole network and it is funded by the World Bank, and the project will take two years to be completed, and now, we have done 70% of the project.
“Almost a month ago, we were at Gwagwalada (in Abuja) with the World Bank where we celebrated the project. It is 70 percent completed. Once we have the scatter system, it will reduce the frequency of getting system disturbances.
“We are trying to upgrade all our transmission lines,” he said, adding that though the government might not have enough money for the project, the TCN has been working in partnership with private companies to mobilise funds.
“The honourable minister is now working with the presidency to have that approval. This is what we call the super grid.
“By the time we have it, even if there is a fault in one transmission line, you can switch to the one so that we have an alternative but now, the type of grid we have, once we have a problem with the line, you have no other line to switch on to,” he said.
The post Grid collapse: ‘Our equipment is outdated,’ TCN MD calls for investment appeared first on Vanguard News.
