Nigeria Requires $7.7bn To Improve Power Supply - TCN
27 March 2014
Ventures
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), a business unit under the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), says it would need $7.7 billion to improve power infrastructure in the next five years.
Mack Kast, TCN's Manager, said the company's five year expansion plan aims to consistently increase the transportation capacity of electric power from 10gigawatt by 2017 to 13 gigawatt by 2018 to 16 gigawatt by 2019 and 20gigawatt by 2020, thus curtailing epileptic power supply in the country.
Explaining the supply of electricity, he said the chain consists of companies in charge of generation (GENCOs), transmission (TCN) and distribution (DISCOs). The GENCO's and DISCO's are privately owned while TCN is the only organisation still under government control.
Interference at any level of the chain will lead to inadequate power supply and currently, generation capacity has dropped from 4,000 megawatts to 3000 megawatts.
"The generation capacity right now has dropped to about 3000mw. This keeps fluctuating on a daily basis due to vandalism and gas challenge" Kast said.
An investors' conference which is part of TCN's plan to work out modalities for the investment is currently holding since adequate funding is critical to the transformation agenda they hope to achieve.
"The conference is meant to bring all the stakeholders together to forge a way forward for the proper funding of the transmission sector," Nigeria's Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo, said.
At last month's Nigeria Power Sector Investors Conference, a representative of Nigerian bankers and CEO of Diamond Bank, Alex Otti, revealed that the banking sector had invested about $4.5 billion since the privatisation of the power sector. The representative of the African Development Bank (AFDB), Mark Chavelo, also said the bank will make available $380 million to improve private sector participation.
Even with the influx of investments, the country's over 170 million populace still await improved power supply. Although authorities have stressed the need for patience, doubts hang over the privatization process' success.
However, TCN's five-year plan might make a difference, but with the company just handling transmission, lack of strategy and implementation on the part of the other companies in the electricity supply chain might confirm the scepticism sourrounding the project.
Original article by Temitope Bolade
Category: Energy