TCN and non-evacuation of energy by the DISCOs

The Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Alhaji Usman Gur Muhammad, has confirmed my earlier assertion that the distribution companies (DISCOs) cannot be able to distribute the energy from the generation companies and transmission grid system network.

He spoke recently in Abuja, during a dinner with journalists covering the power sector. Alhaji Muhammad was quoted to have said, “But when we came in even with that capacity that it has, TCN was higher than the distribution companies as the distribution companies has the capacity of between 4,500 to 5,000MW as we speak. So it is easy for some for someone to think that TCN does not need to expand the grid because our capacity was higher than what the distribution companies can pick”. He went further to also highlight on the power pyramid system of transmission which is of international standards. According to the system, if generation is 7,000MW, transmission is supposed to have the capacity of 14,000MW. In the same pyramid system, distribution is supposed to be twice the capacity of the transmission. So as we speak, distribution is supposed to be 28,000MW. This is how the system works. So, in transmission, even though we have the capacity higher than the distribution, it is not right for us to think that we are there. No, because our target is to be twice the capacity of the distribution. And that is why we came up with a transmission administration and expansion programme.

With the above revelations coming from the Managing Director of TransisCo, I have been vindicated on all my write-ups on the need to immediately, and as a matter of urgency upgrade our shattered, comatose, haggard-looking 33/11KV distribution network spread across every nook and cranny of this country, in order to achieve the optimal efficiency in the electricity management and distribution.

As an engineer, with many years of industry experience, and I speak with confidence and authority, “that our present distribution system network cannot carry up to 5,000MW without tripping, thereby plunging the country into a system collapse”. I stand to be corrected or proved wrong by anybody or group. And to add salt to the injury, our distribution companies are rejecting loads from the TransisCo in order to measure up with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET). If I may ask once again: What is the essence of generating what we cannot give to the consumers? Therefore, to me, the resultant work done is zero.

It beats my imagination that after four years of the so-called privatization exercises, nothing has changed. Rather, we’ve gone back to square one. During the pre-privatization era, we were whitewashed and inundated with the propaganda by the undertakers of the exercise that privatization of the electricity industry is the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria. It will further eliminate corruption/corruptive acts and guarantee 24 hours power supply. And Nigerians believed. What an irony! The government are not good managers of economy, hence the privatization. Now, the so-called private managers/ investors who claimed it had what it takes to succeed have also failed woefully and have nothing to show for it. They could not even provide meters for its consumers, as stipulated in the act, not to talk of providing a clean 33KV distribution network. Do we say Nigeria at ‘crossroads’, so far the electricity industry is concerned?

For almost 18 years of the advent of democracy in Nigeria, successive governments have not been able to fix the electricity industry despite the trillions of naira allocated for the purpose. In fact, it will be an understatement to say that electricity generation and distribution has defied all logics in Nigeria and further reduced our political leaders to mere storytellers. It is either shortage of gas today, insufficient water for the generators, or acts of vandalism. Now, the new trend/slogan in town is called ‘load rejection’ by the DISCOs. The endless story goes on and on, day-in dayout, unabated.

Meanwhile, the authorities concerned are not doing the needful by checkmating the activities of the distribution companies. Instead, they are busy canvassing for one bailout or the other. The National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) also, has not lived up to its responsibility. Their poor regulation has also contributed in crippling the industry, although, I was meant to understand that the commission has no substantive chairman. Well, that’s a discourse for another day. That should be no excuse for poor performance. After all, someone is covering the duties of the chairman. Isn’t it?

It is high time we ‘measure what is measurable and make measurable what cannot be measured’ in the electricity industry. After all, God made man, man-made electricity. We can achieve 24 hours uninterruptible power supply in this country only when, and if, we detach politics and mediocrity in the electricity industry, by putting a square peg in a square hole; not what is obtained presently.

This was how the past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, gave out the electricity industry to cronies, political associates etc, in the name of privatization, brought in a foreign collaborator, sorry contractor, Manitoba HydroInternational, Canada to manage our own TCN. They brought in a diploma holder (a Whiteman), made him Managing Director over and above Nigerian good engineers and scientists, some who are adjudged to be the best in the world. What an inferiority complex indeed! He succeeded in destroying our transmission system due to inexperience, under-qualification and lack of knowledge of 330/132KV Nigerian system network. At the end of the day, Manitoba was paid $23 million, Nigerian taxpayers’ money for doing nothing. In fact, their contract was about to be renewed early this year. I was one of those who wrote and vehemently opposed the renewal of the sham called contract by the government. We’ve carried out enough innocuous experiments with our electricity industry, with nothing to show for it. It is time for action(s).

Permit me at this juncture, the privilege to propose for a Comprehensive Distribution Management Upgrading Project (CDMUP). The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Raji Fashola (SAN), can tap into this idea.

The problem with leadership in this country at all levels is that our leaders do not want to be criticized. When you criticize them, you automatically become their enemy, and you will be called names by their army of jobless advisers/ aides. They only want to be told of what they want to hear. All of us can never be boot-lickers, praise-singers and political hangers-on. To cure injustices, you must expose them before the light of human conscience and the bar of public opinion, regardless of whatever tensions that exposure generates. Ladan (Snr) wrote piece from Abuja. this