TCN Set To Split, Eyes N1.8bn Digital Power Control Rooms
The Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Gur Mohammed has announced process to split the company and will spend $5 million (About N1.812 billion) to digitise its substations’ control rooms nationwide. Mohammed at a stakeholders’ interactive forum held by the Market Operator (MO) in Abuja on Wednesday, said the forum came at a time when MO was enforcing the Market Rule and instilling discipline in the power sector.
He said, “Our intention is to midwife TCN in such a way that TCN will cease to exist. There will be a separate Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and the Independent System Operation (ISO) will be with the MO. I am doing everything possible for that.” However, Mohammed said the split can only be successful when the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and the Electricity Management System (EMS) are installed.
He said the firm is procuring fibre optic for some critical lines towards attaining SCADA. TCN said Nigeria is learning from South Africa’s Eskom Power about their SCADA after failing twice. “Nigeria has failed three times and if this time fails, it will be the fourth time,” Mohammed noted. He said TCN will be training 15 staff who will be bonded to TCN till after five years. Five each will be trained on the software, hardware and the communication aspects.
“We are going to train them anywhere in the world, even if it will cost us $3 million, we will do it,” he said. Mr Mohammed also said TCN is going to spend $5m (about N1.8bn) in digitising control rooms across the substations nationwide to enhance the SCADA operation. The Market Operator, Engr. Edmund Eje urged the participants to get used to the Market Rules and all compliance codes because TCN was focused on enforcing them to give confidence to investors and to promote market efficiency.
In a presentation, a former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi the present Transition Electricity Market (TEM) regime in the sector ought to ensure contractual performance since it was activated in 2015 but regretted that only few Generation Companies (GenCos) have Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Some Distribution Companies (DisCos) were recently sanctioned and suspended due to defaults in their Letters of Credit (LCs) to pay for energy services, he added.
