Nigerian Government Targets 10 GW Of Power In 2019 As TCN Moves To Acquire World Class SCADA, EMS

Fashola

By CLEMENT NWOJI, Abuja

The Federal Government said that it is targeting attainment of 10 GigaWatts (GW) of Power by the year, 2019 with the on going implementation of the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) by the Transmission of Nigeria (TCN).

Towards realising this target, the TREP is expected to deliver a functional Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Energy Management System (EMS) for the use of TCN, industry operators, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency ( NEMSA).

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made these disclosures while declaring open a two-day workshop on the “Review of TCN SCADA-EMS and Telecommunications Feasibility Study”  in Abuja attended by international operators in power sector.

This is even as the Managing Director of TCN, Mohammed Gur Usman, disclosed that in course implementing TREP the company had sourced $1.57 Billion while further discussions to raise more funds are on going.

The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Louis Edozien, said that the TREP is expected to stabilize, expand and provide necessary flexibility and redundancy for 15 GW national grid that meets the needs of all industry operators and their customers.

However, he noted that Nigeria cannot play effectively its role as a net exporter of Power into West Africa Power Pool through Benin and Niger Republics and integration of transmission networks of electric power utilities within West Africa without a functional SCADA and EMS.

He recalled previous attempts by TCN to deliver functional SCADA, EMS and Telecommunications system in 1990 and 2004 which failed due to substations apparatus/control subsystem deficiencies, improper project scoping to unsatisfactory project execution and deficient capacity of the intended users and operators of the systems.

According to Fashola, “Failure is not an option this time around. To ensure functional SCADA and EMS is delivered timely, the federal government included SCADA and EMS in the recently approved World Bank financed component of TREP.

“The new SCADA and EMS system is expected to optimize existing facilities and procure New systems, infrastructure and outsourced services for a successful and complete role out of effective supervision, control and monitoring of all power stations and substations connected to the national grid”.

Further on his part, the TCN managing director, said that on assumption of office in February 2017, a SCADA Review Committee headed by the current head of ISO was set up to provide reasons why the previous attempts at establishing effective SCADA EMS in TCN were not successful.

Usman said in order to have input into the report of the committee to facilitate having efficient SCADA and EMS, this informed the workshop so that participants would review it  and provide adequate guidelines toward acquiring state of the art and world class SCADA and EMS facility that would stand the test of time.