FG invests N72bn to electricity distribution

THE State Minister of Power, works and Housing, Suleiman Hassan Zarma has The federal government is to invest a whopping sum of N72 billion on the electricity distribution companies in Nigeria in order to boost the power sector.

This was disclosed on Sunday by the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Suleiman Hassan Zarma while speaking during the commissioning of the 1x30MVA, 132/33KV transformer in Gombe Transmission Substation urging electricity distribution companies in the country to improve their network so that the massive investment by the Transmission Company of Nigeria can lead to economic growth and development of the country.

The Minister said that “The laudable project being executed by TCN and generation companies will not lead to significant improvement in the quality of power supply to the people unless the Distribution companies also invest in rehabilitation and expansion of the network.”

He further said that the program would strengthen national grid infrastructure for enhanced wheeling capacity that offers redundancy, consistent with the requirements of N-1 reliability criterion.

“As part of the program, another milestone has been achieved here at Gombe, Jewel of the Savanna City with the installation of the 1x30MVA at the Gombe 330/132/33KV transmission substation, the capacity of the substation at 132/33KV prior to the installation was 105 MVA. Therefore with this upgrading, the capacity has been raised to 135MVA.”

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“With the upgrading, communities listed to benefit are customers of Jos Disco who are expected to experience a remarkable improvement in power supply. They include Gombe, Dadin Kowa, Kumo, Billiri, Kaltungo, Waja, Bajoga, Mallam Sidi, Dukku, Kashere in Gombe state and Darazo, Bara in Bauchi state and others,” he pointed out.

He also said that the Federal government has resolved the lingering problem that militated against the completion of the Dadin-Kowa Hydroelectric Power Station while construction work on the transmission line will be completed very soon.

Also speaking, Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Usman Gur Mohammed represented by the Head, Transmission Service Provider, Victor Adewumi, said that if the project will strengthen the grid stability in meeting with load demand that is being suppressed and boost power supply with additional 30MVA (24MW).