Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said it was currently working to expand the national grid as part of efforts to improve power supply in the country.
This was disclosed by the General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, in a statement, where she explained that the capacity of the national grid has improved under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, especially with the record of four all-time peaks in the sector in 2020, and two recorded in January 2021 so far.
The Public Affairs GM further explained that TCN grid network has the capacity of 8,100 megawatts even as it continues to work towards completing ongoing projects to further increase its capacity.
She clarified that the National Control Centre (NCC), an arm of TCN, is responsible for ensuring grid stability and its dispatch instructions are guided by the Grid Code, which it strictly adheres to, with a clear understanding of consequences to the nation’s grid.
Despite the role played by the NCC, she clarified that TCN does not distribute electricity to electricity consumers and cannot also switch off consumer feeders. Its jurisdiction on the network is from 330 kilovolt (kV) to 132kV power lines. The company cannot switch off consumers feeders as it is not within TCN’s jurisdiction, she maintained.
“The fact is that electricity cannot be stored; therefore, power generation, transmission and distribution occur simultaneously.
“What determines what is put on the grid is what the distribution companies are ready to off-take, this equally regulates what the generator would generate, which is why the DisCos are required to nominate what they would off-take a day ahead.
“It is important to note that whatever happens on the downstream network impacts on transmission and generators.
“That notwithstanding, it would be wrong to attribute most localized outages and load-shedding of consumers feeders to TCN. Discos can only off-take what is generated, while Gencos can only generate what Discos can off-take.
“Each of the 11 DisCos has its own challenges which may necessitate outage in certain places per time,” she said.
