TCN sees significant reduction in system collapse in 2014 – MD

By Etuka Sunday

The Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mack Kast said the significant reduction in system collapse in 2014 has been as a result of judicious use of available resources tailored towards enhanced evacuation capacity.

Kast was quoted in a statement by the Deputy Director, Press, Ministry of Power, Timothy Oyedeji to have made the disclosure at the leadership forum organized for the power sector.

According to Kast, TCN have a number of important projects on-going and at various stages of completion, he said hopefully some of these projects will come upstream early part of next year.

He said TCN is almost ready to evacuate power to be produced from two major National Integration Power Projects (NIPPs) in Calabar and Alaoji, the good news from TCN is that in the first quarter of 2015 the two plants would come upstream.

He gave kudos to the contractors and officials working on these projects for ensuring that they would be realized on schedule, adding that fund utilization has recorded a big heap to as much as 99.5%, in the year under review.

Also at the forum, the Chairman Senate Committee on Power, Senator Philip Aduda counseled the new owners of GENCOs and DISCOs to be guided by the maxim that to whom much is given, much is expected, hence Nigerians expect more from them as they are fully in charge of the sector post privatization.

He was quick to add that Government cannot fold its hand because despite privatization, Government still have equity share in those enterprises, again, a responsible Government must do all it can to deliver the goods.

He said that investors in the power sector must be encouraged to keep faith with the nation’s vision of uninterrupted power supply.

On load shedding in the sector, he said, it is totally unacceptable that Distribution Companies have not kept faith with the promised capital injection to enhance and build on what was inherited, he tasked them to brace up by building capacity to take up all allocated power.

This he said is the only way to justify the confidence repose in them by Government, to take the sector to higher heights.

Simeon Atakuliku, the Representative of Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) in his presentation at the forum spoke about the inability of the national grid to provide enough power for both industrial and domestic uses, he urged all agencies that have the mandate to deliver on power to be at the back of contractors, so that all these projects are realized on time.

He also spoke on the need for a more robust move towards solar powered energy source through legislation and incentives, arguing that the vast potentials of the country in the area of solar energy is grossly underutilized.