EU Pledges €25m for Nigeria’s Power Transmission Expansion

• EU Pledges €25m for Nigeria’s Power Transmission Expansion

The European Union has pledged to support the expansion of Nigeria’s power transmission infrastructure with a grant of €25m (N7.6bn at the official exchange rate of N305 to one Euro).

According to the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the grant will support the TCN on solar Independent Power Projects’ evacuation.

The Interim Managing Director, TCN, Usman Mohammed, who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Thursday, also stated that the transmission firm was working towards a national peak power generation of 6,000 megawatts in the early part of 2018.

“The European Union has pledged to provide €25m grant to support the TCN on solar IPPs’ evaluation,” he said.

Mohammed added, “In the early part of 2017, our average peak load was about 4,000MW. However, on December 8, 2017, at 11pm, we recorded a new national peak of 5,155.9MW (previous national peak was 5,074.7MW, recorded on February 2nd, 2017 at 10pm). Together, we must work towards a national peak of 6,000MW in the early part of next year.”

He also stated that the company had submitted a proposal for extraordinary tariff review to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Mohammed said, “The TCN has obtained consent and successfully submitted for the first time a proposal for extraordinary tariff review to NERC. If approved by NERC, it will significantly increase the TCN’s revenue and provide sufficient incentives to generators who provide ancillary services.”

The TCN boss noted that the company had completed its 2012 to 2014 and 2015 audited financial statements in April and May this year, respectively.

He said the TCN looked forward to submitting its 2016 annual audit this month, as he stressed that it was the first time that the transmission company had submitted audited account since it was created.

Mohammed further noted that the company had reduced wastage through the strengthening of its procurement system and contract administration, adding that the TCN had resolved several line issues that lingered for years.