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TCN records new electricity transmission peak of 4,656MW

By BusinessNews Staff on July 18, 2015

About 48 hours after it reported a new electricity transmission peak of 4,545 megawatts (MW), the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Thursday said that it had recorded a new peak transmission of 4,656MW.

TCN stated in a statement from its General Manager, Public Affairs, Seun Olagunju, that it’s total electricity transmission capacity into the national grid had increased to this new level of 4,656MW.
The new peak transmission, TCN explained, was attained on Wednesday night by 10pm.

It would be recalled that TCN, a few days ago announced the attainment of 4,545MW peak transmission, thus, surpassing its previous record peak power transmission of 4,517MW which it recorded on December 23, 2012.

TCN also informed that power generation and transmission had been above 4,000MW, following improvements in gas supply to the generating stations as well as equipment and infrastructure upgrade.
It added that enhanced human capacity of its system operations has also contributed to this improvement.

The transmission company also assured the public that it would continue to work at enhancing its capacity to transmit more quality power to electricity distribution companies in the country.

Also, in a related development, the TCN said parties in the sector were already working out a solution to offset a reported debt of about N57 billion which is being owed the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Limited as unpaid money for power supplied to the national grid by the power generation plants of the NDPHC, even though it denied owing the huge debts.

Seven of the 10 power plants built by the NDPHC under the National Integrated Power Plants (NIPP) had reportedly supplied electricity to the national grid without getting paid for over a space of three years.

The NDPHC had reportedly made efforts to recover the huge debts which it said were weighing down its operations and could lead to its shutting down of operations.

NDPHC pointedly placed the huge debts at the doors of the Market Operations (MO) department of the TCN.

But in its clarification, TCN said it is not owing NDPHC, adding that like other market participants in the country’s electricity industry, it is also being owed money by the market.

“For the avoidance of doubt, TCN, like the NDPHC, is a participant in the Nigerian electricity market, and is also owed several billions of naira by the market.

“The body of the story actually shows that the actual parties involved in the matter are NDPHC, NERC, the Federal Ministry of Power and Market Operations (MO), a unit of TCN that acts as the administrator of the market,” said Olagunju in a statement.

She added: “The function of the Market Operations, according to the Market Rules, the extant laws governing the Nigerian electricity market, is to administer the billing and payment process. It therefore represents the market participants, but does not assume any payment responsibilities.

“It is important to note that the debt under reference is technically a market debt which has resulted from insufficient remittance from distribution companies for electricity generated and supplied.”

“The debt is neither owed by the Market Operator whose duty as stated earlier is only as an administrator, nor by TCN, the parent company.”

However, current information available indicates that the debts to NDPHC, TCN, and other parties are being seriously addressed by the relevant agencies including NERC and the Federal Ministry of Power,” she states.

[ThisDay]

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