The Federal Government has extended Manitoba
Hydro International Limited of Canada’s
management contract for the Transmission
Company of Nigeria by a year.
The government took the decision despite the
agitation by electricity workers that the contract
should not be renewed as they vowed to seek
all legal means to protect themselves should
the deal be extended.
The Federal Government also confirmed that
the TCN would be unbundled into two
companies, and this would be facilitated by
Manitoba.
The extension of Manitoba’s deal follows a
three-year management contract signed in 2012
for it to manage TCN’s electrical power
transmission, system operation and market
operation undertakings, as well as train the
transmission firm’s personnel.
The initial contract, which was signed by the
TCN, MHI and the Bureau of Public Enterprises,
will expire on July 31, 2015.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Mrs.
Seun Olagunju, noted in a statement on Tuesday
that MHI would continue to assume
responsibility for the management and control
of TCN’s entire operations, working alongside
Nigerians to transform the company into a
technically and financially efficient, stable and
sustainable organisation.
She said working together with the transmission
company’s employees, Manitoba had achieved a
wheeling capacity of 5,300 megawatts of
electricity and reduced system losses from over
12 per cent to approximately eight per cent.
“In addition, system collapses have reduced
significantly from 22 in 2013 to nine in 2014,
while the duration of collapses has reduced
from more than 2.5 hours to approximately 30
minutes,” Olagunju said.
She noted that the fourth year of the contract
would focus on further increasing TCN’s
capacity to transmit power in the grid, in
anticipation of rising levels of generation in the
country.
“Additionally, MHI will facilitate the unbundling
of the TCN into two new organisations, the
Transmission Service Provider and the
Independent System Operator, while
simultaneously building the capacity of local
management to take over the leadership of
these organisations at the end of its contract,”
Olagunju stated.
The Chairman of TCN’s Supervisory Board, Mr.
Ibrahim Waziri, expressed satisfaction with
Manitoba’s performance, noting that the
Canadian firm would continue to play a role in
TCN’s transformation and development.
“Working together, we expect to build on our
achievements over the past three years,” Waziri
was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, for the first time in about three
years, the country on Monday recorded a new
peak power generation of 4,545MW that
surpassed the 4,517.6MW, which had been
previously recorded as the highest generated
power.
At 9.25pm on Monday, the new peak generation
was recorded, thereby eclipsing the 4,517.6MW
record set on December 23, 2012.
Figures obtained by one of our correspondents
from the Presidential Task Force on Power
revealed that the country had achieved the new
electricity generation peak of 4,545MW through
its national network.
Similarly, the TCN confirmed that the feat was
achieved on Monday night, adding that it had
the capacity to transmit the generated
electricity.
The TCN management had last week stated that
electricity wheeling to the distribution
companies had improved to over 4,000MW due
to improvement in fuel supply to the plants.
Energy generation on Tuesday was put at
4,049.78MW, the energy sent out was
3,958.22MW, while peak demand was
12,800MW.


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/tcn-fg-extends-manitobas-contract-by-12-months/

Anything but civil servant control is fine by me