TCN Acting Managing Director Assures Nigeria Of Robust Grid, Lists Achievements

The Acting Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, has assured the nation of robust grid for transmission.

While giving brief account of his six months in office, explained that the last system collapse which occurred few days ago was rectified within 40 minutes.

He urged Nigerians not to loose sleep over system collapse as it is a normal occurrence in power sector all over the world, assuring that TCN works towards avoiding it.

He spoke during brief encounter with Journalists in Abuja.

Engr. Abdulaziz cited that since his assumption of office six months ago, Nigeria had only one system collapse which was rectified within 40 minutes same day.

According to Engr. Abdulaziz, “We need to understand that in every country you have system collapse. System collapse is not something like war. System collapse do happen all over the world. It’s normal thing to happen.

“We are guarding the grid, we don’t want system collapse to happen but it do happen.

“But the most important thing is that when it happens what did you do, how did you restore the system, what measures did you take? These are the most important things.

“And six months time is a long period. For the last six months there was no system collapse and within these six months, we have made a lot of achievements. So, I don’t want people to be looking at just the once in awhile bad thing.”

The TCN Acting Managing Director, who gave brief account of his achievements so far and plans for the TCN, assured that the management and Staff of the company works towards having a robust grid and improving transmission to higher level.

According to him, “You see as Managing Director of TCN, I want to take it to a higher level.
Now, what is the main function of TCN?

“Our main function is to transfer electricity from generation to distribution companies. So, it means what we have to do first is to make sure that we have a robust grid that can transmit power any time and place.

“So, our first priority is to make sure that all the on going projects are completed.

“Since I came, we’ve looked at the projects to know why they not moving and the constraints.

“If you look at it, some of the things that doesn’t allow project to move is like wheeling issues, variation issues, some approvals you are expecting from the government but you don’t get it, the staff also that are supervising the project and their capacity. You need to train them and they need to know what they are doing.

“One of the first thing that I did was to try to reorganize the project department. Most of the engineers were posted out to the region and I found out that it is not the right thing to do.

“So, what I did was to bring these engineers back to the headquarters and assigned them to be doing the work under the General Manager engineering.

“Then all the pending requests that we have, I liaise with the Hon. Minister of Power. The things that are supposed to be forwarded to Federal Executive Council (FEC) we try to write memos and get such approvals. The same thing with the ministry of Finance, customs, we have been liaising with them so that all those that have been hindering our projects, we get them resolved.

“Then, the contractors also, we been meeting with them to know their challenges. Some of these projects have been lingering for over 10 years and as you’re aware that prices have changed.

“We renegotiated with them, some of them we have to approve their variations and so with these things now, our projects are moving.

“As you have seen recently, we have commissioned Gagarawa substation in Jigawa state and more are still coming. We finished Ikeja West in Lagos, Akure will soon come, Katsina substation and a lot of them.

“Then, the grid in terms of maintenance, when I came in there was no spare parts in the store. So, the first thing I did was to advertise to make sure all the spare parts we need are there. This process is on going now. We have finished the technical part, we going to open the commercial tender now.

“After that, you will see that we have all we require to maintain our system. So, this is what I’m doing to make sure that the TCN moves ahead.”