OBVIOUSLY unsatisfied with the state of the Nigerian electricity transmission system, the Presidency on Wednesday gave the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) marching orders to ensure that government's target of having 5000MWs of electricity is evacuated in the national grid.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria has been at the top of criticisms trailing the sector for its inability to maintain an effective and efficient transmission network, leading to high transmission losses. Poor transmission and distribution networks have generally characterized.

TCN has also been directed to conclude talks on integrating some of the recently completed NIPP plants into the spinning reserve and frequency control program to shore up the daily reserve especially as the profile of available but undelivered power is rising.

In apparent response to the challenges facing the transmission network, the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) on Wednesday met with the top management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria where they were charged to leave up to their statutory responsibilities. Officials of Manitoba we not at that meeting.

Chairman of the PTFP, Beks Dagogo-Jack, said at the meeting in Abuja that TCN must rise to the occasion and check the frequency of power grid collapses.

He called on TCN to ensure that the December 2012 target of 5,000 megawatts of grid-delivered power is achieved.

The meeting dealt extensively with the likely immediate and remote causes of the collapses and identified a few remedy plans with short to long term delivery times.

Two major causes for the system collapses were identified as generation-side triggers especially during periods of very low power availability and transmission-side triggers with the latter contributing over 60% of the trigger incidents.

The issue of overgrown vegetation interacting with high and low voltage power lines which worsens during the wet season and through logging activities was also blamed for some of losses by the management of TCN.

Chief Executive of TCN, Mr. Olusola Akinniranye said: "The second factor is the unreliability of the protection and relay systems which should (if properly serviced) anticipate, isolate and limit the impact of a single system fault from snow-balling into a grid collapse. This combines with the lack of an effective Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system designed to provide grid intelligence and assist with managing the power grid. The absence of SCADA weakens the system’s integrity.

"The third major reason for the recurrent systems collapses is grossly insufficient spinning reserve cum frequency control and system black start capability – integral elements to sustaining power supply. The fourth significant cause of collapses is isolated cases of vandalism at live power facilities. These perpetrators compromise the power lines by bridging targeted segments of the power grid to cause forced outages in order for them to steal installed power facilities quickly before the stolen segment can be traced and restored."