TCN to split, eyes $5m digital power transmission control rooms

Usman Gur Mohammed, managing director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has announced the decision to split the company and the plan to spend $5 million to digitise its substations’ control rooms nationwide.

Speaking at a stakeholders interactive forum held by the Market Operator (MO) in Abuja on Wednesday, Mohammed said the forum came at a time when MO was enforcing the market rules and instilling discipline in the power sector.

Mohammed said: “Our intention is to midwife TCN in such a way that TCN will cease to exist. There will be a separate Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and the Independent System Operation (ISO) will be with the MO. I am doing everything possible for that.”

However, Mohammed said the split can only be successful when the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and the electricity management system (EMS) is in place. He said the firm was procuring fibre optic for some critical lines towards attaining SCADA.

“Fixing SCADA will take about two years, so we have segmented it to start with the automated meter reading (AMR) where all energy will be accurately metered and every market participant will have access to that.”

TCN said Nigeria was learning from South Africa’s Eskom Power about their SCADA after failing twice.

“Nigeria has failed three times and if this time fails, it will be the fourth time,” Mohammed noted.

To ensure the SCADA success, he said TCN will be training 15 staff who will be bonded to TCN till after five years. Five each will be trained on the software, hardware and the communication aspects. “We are going to train them anywhere in the world, even if it will cost us N$3 million, we will do it,” he said.

Mohammed also said TCN was going to spend $5m in digitising control rooms across the substations nationwide to enhance the SCADA operation. The Market Operator, Edmund Eje urged the participants to get used to the Market Rules and all compliance codes because TCN was focused on enforcing them to give confidence to investors and to promote market efficiency.