Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have flayed the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) over its obsolete and collapse system that has caused inefficiencies and 5,311 interface disruptions in one DisCo in the first 18 days of this month.
The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), which represents 10 DisCos, except Yola DisCo said despite $1.6 billion multilateral funding of TCN, its equipment have caused over 100 electricity grid collapses since privatisation in 2013, and nine collapses this year.
In a statement by ANED Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Chief Sunday Oduntan, explained that it was responding to a recent TCN report that the DisCos misrepresented crucial power evacuation and distribution data.
Presenting the facts, ANED said it owes obligation to the 10 DisCos who have invested about $1.4 billion in the networks, insisting that the DisCos had not rejected energy load as TCN claimed in its publication.
ANED also accused TCN of falsifying data that conflicts the data presented to DisCos by the National Control Centre (NCC) which is under TCN and coordinate power allocation to DisCos.
While TCN headquarter data published on September 20th, 2019, showed that 13,963megawatts (Mw) was delivered to DisCos between August 22nd and 24th of 2019, the NCC data actually showed it was 19,173Mw. ANED said indicated a conflicting difference of 5,208Mw data within the same company.
“It raises questions as to the veracity and accuracy of TCN’s response, in terms of the energy that it delivered to the DisCos. How could TCN’s supposed sent-out or delivered energy exceed that recorded by its control centre, the singular source for such information,” ANED said.
While urging TCN to focus on improving its network, the DisCos said except for February 1, 2016, when TCN wheeled 4,557Mw, it has never wheeled sufficient energy to meet the DisCo energy off-take assumptions specified under Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2015.
ANED said the $1.6 billion Federal Government-guaranteed and multilateral funds and grants that TCN has got is unavailable to the privatised Generation Companies (GenCos) and DisCos.
Despite TCN saying it is implementing its Transmission Rehabilitation Expansion Programme (TREP) with the $1.6billion, “the reality is otherwise.
The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) continues to deal with, largely, a TCN that finds it difficult to move away from a PHCN-legacy of uncleared equipment containers, analogue-based and informal communications systems and frequent explosions and burnings of transmission sub-stations and transformers.”
The DisCos said such substation fire recently put Agbor and Asaba towns of Delta State; and Oye, Ekiti State in blackout.
“Over 100 partial and total system collapse recorded since privatisation and nine total system collapses so far this year; multiple transmission interface deficiencies with 5,311 TCN interface interruptions in one DisCo franchise area, from September 1 – 18, 2019.”
Citing Siemens: Electrification Roadmap for Nigeria report of May 7, 2019, Oduntan said: “Today, power distribution by the DisCos to end-customers is limited by power infeed from TCN.
“Rather than eliminate all of the bottlenecks of the transmission grid, TCN, vociferously and continuously, continues to crow about its computer simulated increase in capacity, ignoring the fact that it, currently, only averages a daily 3,700Mw of wheeled or transmitted energy to the DisCos, out of its tested transmission capacity of 5,500 Mw.”
It also noted that TCN’s constant drumbeat of the need to re-capitalise the DisCos distracts from the fact that any such re-capitalisation cannot occur in an environment that lacks the following – respect for, or sanctity of contract; regulatory and policy certainty and consistency; ability of the sector operators to recover their costs of doing business; and an alignment of technical and commercial considerations. (The Nation)
