TThe General Manager, National Control Centre (NCC), Engr. Balarabe Abdullahi has tasked electricity stakeholders in Generation and Distribution Subsectors to collaborate with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) by operating within the Grid Code, Market Rules and other relevant ruling documents in order to further maintain and sustain Grid stability.

He made this known during a two-day Bi-Annual Joint Operations, Generation and DisCos Planning Meeting held on Tuesday, 27th September 2022, and hosted by Eko Electricity Distribution Company at the Civic Centre, Lagos. The meeting was to review generation data in terms of units' availability, water inflow into the reservoirs, transmission system/network challenges and relative availability of gas supply in the previous six months to make projections for the next six months.

In his welcome address, GM NCC revealed that power sector participants had all that was required to lead Nigeria to overcome the present predicament in terms of power availability. He said, “The bi-annual meeting is the forum where operational stakeholders come together to appraise operations of the grid, make forecast as well as recommendations that will improve operations. Outcome of the meeting is expected to form the foundation for making salient decisions on the power sector.” 

Engr Balarabe Abdullahi applauded stakeholders in the power sector for getting it right in the previous six months since their last meeting, even though there were some setbacks and set goals that were not met. He called on all stakeholders to think out of the box on means and ways to overcome the challenges. “Planning is an integral part of every human endeavor and it requires diligent and painstaking action to achieve a set goal,” he said.

Earlier in her opening remarks, the Managing Director, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Dr. Tinuade Sanda commended the Bi-Annual Joint Operations, Generation and DisCos Planning Meeting initiative and appreciated participants for being intentional about a better Nigeria by their attendance. She promised that Eko Electric would continue to do more to ensure improved service delivery.

In the course of the meeting, participants appraised the activities of the sector in the last six months and gave a fair score on the performance of players during the period, considering that there were generation challenges due to inadequate gas supply to most of the thermal generating stations and low water level in the hydro dams which greatly affected load supply to DisCos.

Participants commended the efforts of TCN Management in upgrading some overloaded transformers in the system and recommended that TCN Management should not relent in her effort to upgrade the remaining transformers in various stations as well as reinforce transmission lines, in view of improving power generation.

During the meeting, the effectiveness of communication in the system was deliberated on in view of the fact that communication is not reliable in most stations. It was recommended that adequate communication facilities like PLC, Hotline, PLS, Radio, Optic Fibre, internet and VOIP facilities be provided in all stations to connect NCC, GenCos, DisCos and all 330kV and 132kV transmission substations.

At the end of the meeting, a committee was constituted to monitor and report progress made on issues cited in subsequent bi-annual meetings.