TCN to secure equipment to tackle grid collapse, divided over cost of pricing

To prevent future grid collapse, the Transmission Company of Nigeria is in a race to acquire a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, to enable it monitor the performance of the grid.

To show how dedicated the regulatory body is, it sent a team abroad to evaluate and run checks on the technology that will be best suited for the country, a source said.

However both the source and the MD of TCN, Mohammed Usman differed over the pricing of the technological instrument.

The source said: “SCADA is a multi-million dollar product, as its on average, cost $5million. The huge cost may be one of the reasons, why TCN has not been able to purchase it before now. To save the electricity sector from further problems, the company has decided to look for money to purchase it.”

Usman, disagreeing with cost said the new SCADA would cost TCN about $65 million.

It would be recalled that the country has recorded more than 100 cases of grid collapse since 2013, when the sector was privatised by the Federal Government to promote efficiency in the country.