By Chris Ochayi

ABUJA—THE Nigerian power industry has attained national peak of 5,222.3 megawatts of electricity effectively transmitted in the national grid on December 18, 2017.

The General Manager, Public Affairs of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Ndidi Mbah, who announced this in a statement issued in Abuja, said this milestone achievement was the highest ever recorded in the nation’s power sector to-date.

She said this surpassed the 5,155.9MW achieved on December 8, 2017 and the earlier peak of 5,074.70MW, achieved on February 2, 2016.

Mba noted that the  gradual but  steady  improvement in the  nation’s  power sector was attributable to the strategy of the administration of President  Muhammadu Buhari geared towards growing the power sector,  in line with  its  policy  on incremental power.

She said:  “At the 22nd  Power  Sector Stakeholders Meeting,  the Minister of Power Works and Housing Mr.  Babatunde  Fashola  assured that the current synergy among the Presidency, Ministry of Power, Works  and Housing and other major power sector stakeholders working through the Power Sector Recovery Programme, PSRP, would continue to deliver improved power supply to  the  people.

“To properly key into the  incremental power policy,  TCN  stated that it has  developed the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion  programme  to enable it prioritize  and  execute critical transmission projects.

“This necessitated the clearing  of  the company’s stranded  containers  carrying various transmission equipment  at the sea ports, to enable it complete previously abandoned projects  to  further expand the grid capacity.”

The TCN spokesperson clarified that, “Of the 759 containers  abandoned by contractors  at the sea ports within the last five years,  454 have been cleared  from  March to-date. Payment for 193 containers has been made and they are being cleared, while payment for the outstanding 112 containers is yet to be made.

“TCN further explained that all the 454 containers cleared from the ports have been taken to various construction sites such as Yola, Gulak, Katsina, Jos, Dambatta, Ganmo, Abeokuta,Onitsha and Benin.

‘’Other construction sites include Odoguyan, Ede, Igangan, Okene, Walalambe, Akwanga,  Kachia,  Kumbotso, Kaduna and Yola.’’

She explained further that the containers had been abandoned at the ports for between two and six years by contractors for various reasons, including suspension of TCN Import Duty Exemption Certificate(IDEC) in 2013, by the Ministry of Finance, slow processing of IDEC by TCN in the past and inefficiency of the contractors.

According to her,tThe result is the several uncompleted transmission projects in different parts of the country.

“TCN reiterated its commitment to continue to work to further stabilize, rehabilitate and expand the grid and called on  all  Nigerians  to work with the sector in safeguarding electricity installations nationwide,’’ Mba said.