By Obas Esiedesa
The acting Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Engr. Sule Abdulaziz has explained that the electricity national grid system that collapsed on Sunday was restored within 40 minutes.
Abdulaziz told journalists in Abuja that every part of the country has been restored.
He noted that there was nothing strange in the system failure as it happens all over the world.
According to him, “Since I came on board, we never had any system collapse and this one that happened on Sunday was restored immediately which is the fastest system collapse recovery.
“We are guarding the grid, we don’t want the system collapse to happen, but when it happens, the most important thing is what was done and how it was done to restore the system.
“In the last six months, there was no system collapse in the grid,” he stated.
He said that in his last few months in office, he had reorganised the company to ensure power stability.
He said the company has commissioned two bulk power transmission projects since he assumed office in May 2020, with over five others ready soon.
“Recently, we commissioned the Gagarawa substation and another project, and more are coming. They include Ogba and Ikeja West in Lagos, Akure, Katsina substation are coming.
“Our main function is to transmit electricity from generation to distribution and so we need to have a robust grid. So our priority is to ensure that all ongoing projects are completed.”
He noted that he had studied some of the issues with the delayed projects and they are being fixed.
“Some of the issues were right of way, import clearance and contract variation; there is also the issue of developing staff capacity. We need to train them.
“So when I came, I tried to reorganize the project department and bring engineers that were posted to the regions to the Engineering department at the headquarters to supervise the projects.
“With the support of the Minister of Power, we are getting approval for funds to complete projects. We have also been liaising with the ministry of finance to clear the import duty exemption certificate to bring in stranded equipment.”
He also said some of the projects have been delayed for over 10 years and things have changed, so fresh negotiations have been done. “We negotiated with them and agreed on variations and so the works are now ongoing,” said Abdulaziz.
