The managing director and chief executive of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Sule Abdulaziz, has confirmed that Nigeria supplies 24-hour electricity to Togo, Benin and Niger.
He disclosed this while speaking on Channels Television programnme, Sunday Politics.
Abdulaziz also stated that not all Nigerians enjoy a 24-hour power supply, except the Band A consumers who are the priority of the distribution companies.
Even at that, he said they make do with 20 or 22-hour daily electricity supply.
“We supply Togo, we supply Benin and Niger. Yes, they get power from Nigeria on a 24-hour basis and they are paying.
“Nigerians are getting 24-hour electricity supply; not everybody, those people in Band A. You will see that they get a 20-22 hour power supply. Some Nigerians are getting 24 hours. Every distribution company has Band A and that is their priority,” he said.
The TCN chief said the transmission system needs a lot of investment, noting that the power sector has been neglected for many years.
“For so many years in this country that sector has been neglected. Most of the equipment we use is 50 years or 40 years old. So it is not possible for those infrastructure to work perfectly,” he said.
On the incessant collapse of the national grid, Abdulaziz said TCN will implement a backup system to prevent nationwide blackouts.
“We are doing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for the whole network and it is funded by the World Bank, and the project will take two years to be completed, and now, we have done 70 per cent of the project.
“Almost a month ago, we were at Gwagwalada (in Abuja) with the World Bank where we celebrated the project. It is 70 per cent completed. Once we have the SCADA system, it will reduce the frequency of getting system disturbances. We are trying to upgrade all our transmission lines,” he said.
He added: “The honourable minister (Mr Adebayo Adelabu) is now working with the presidency to have that approval. This is what we call the super grid. By the time we have it, even if there is a fault in one transmission line, you can switch to the one so that we have an alternative but now, the type of grid we have, once we have a problem with the line, you have no other line to switch on to.”
With Premium Times report
