Electricity: TCN seeks more investment for grid expansion
The Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Engr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz has appealed to the Federal government to invest more in the power sector as electricity is one of the major infrastructure industries and masses need for development.
He made this appeal at the inspection of commissioned power transformers at its substations in Lagos, while commenting on the FG’s projection for power generation to increase by 10,000 megawatts by 2025.
He said: “When we are talking about 10,000, 20,000 or 25,000 megawatts, you know, we need a lot of money, a lot of investment.
The power sector is not something cheap, we can meet it and even do more than that, but we need investment. People are comparing Nigeria to other countries, if you look at India for example, in a year they have over $500 million budget for electricity.
“We know that government has a lot of things to do, but electricity is one of the important things you give your people because it will help them develop. So we can reach that target, but we need more investment in the sector”.
Speaking on ongoing efforts to improve power supply in the country, the TCN boss said that about $200 million is the cost to complete the project across the country and its part of the ongoing World Bank/TCN projects for the improvement of power supply in Nigeria.
“The newly commissioned 100/125MVA power transformer at the Sango-Otta substation has increased the installed capacity of the substation from 160MW to 260MW. With this, there will be available power supply for Ibadan and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company to offtake to their customers in Ota, Iju, Sango, Ijoko, Abeokuta, and its environs.
“Meanwhile, the commissioning of 100MVA power transformer at Alausa substation and the capacity of the substation has increased to 230MVA. This means there will bulk power available for Ikeja Distribution Company to offtake to its customers in Ikeja, Oregun, Alausa, Ojodu Berger and environs.”
