After four years on the contentious
management contract for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Manitoba
Hydro International of Canada has ended its stint with Nigeria.
While it is not
immediately clear what government’s next plan for TCN is, the Minister of
Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, recently hinted at a possible
unbundling option, according to reports from The Guardian.
The distribution companies have also called
for the utility to be concessioned. On their part, the nation’s electricity
generation companies said the current transmission infrastructure of the TCN
remains a threat to the safety of their operations and equipment, despite
Manitoba’s stint. Rather, they want government to invest substantially into the
transmission network and upgrade its capacity to an equal level with other
value chains of the power sector. The utilities highlighted how continued
underperformance was impeding the sector’s growth, and called for quick
solutions to the development.
The Minister of Power, Fashola, hinted that
the Ministry was constantly receiving expression of interests from people who
want to invest in transmission grid expansion on a Public Private Partnership
basis (Build Operate and Transfer). He said government was open to the offers,
noting:
“We are open to it. But we
recognize the need for assurances of recovery.”
He also said he had challenged
the experts to come up with proposals about how expansions could be done on a modular basis, while still being interconnected to the main grid.
Culled from energymixreports
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