MDAs

TCN wants NERC to review tariff

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8 years ago

In a bid to avert incidence such as system collapse, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, has urged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to carry out an ‘extraordinary’ tariff review.

General Manager, Public Affairs of NERC, Ndidi Mbah, who confirmed this to the Nigerian Tribune, however, blamed the recent System Collapse on the inconsistency of the Egbin power plant.

She said this was to ensure that generation companies were incentivised to provide sufficient spinning reserves and other ancillary services that were critical for managing the national grid.

She said: “a System Collapse was recorded on September 28, 2017 at 20:03Hrs. Reports obtained from stations and the sequence of events generated by the SCADA system indicated that the system collapse was triggered by the tripping of Egbin Units ST4, ST6 and ST5 at ‘20:03:15, 20:03:32 and 20:03:34’ respectively.

“By this incident, the Nigerian electric power grid lost generation completely before restoration commenced at 20:22Hrs.

“A post-mortem analysis of the event indicated that grid generation was curtailed (to about 4,262.7MW) prior to the inception of the disturbance due to capacity under-utilisation and the operational capability required to maintain grid stability had waned, leaving the system vulnerable to the extent that perturbations of this magnitude resulted in severe system frequency dip that culminated in system collapse.”

The analysis, according to TCN, indicated that there was insufficient level of spinning reserve provided by grid-connected generation companies arising from low tariffs for providing ancillary services.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc (NERC) hereby solicits for the understanding of all Nigerians as we continue our efforts to provide the electricity industry with a world-class national grid.

“On our part NERC, we will strive to ensure that the stride attained recently in frequency control is sustained in line with world industry standards and codes,” she said.

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