The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, designed for monitoring and controlling field devices, is currently 69% complete, with the aim of eventually using it enhance the management and control of the national power infrastructure, enabling prompt responses to outages and efficient load management.
Managing Director of TCN, Engr. Sule Abdulaziz, disclosed this on Thursday to State House correspondents in Abuja, saying that once completed, the company will have the capacity to conduct real-time monitoring of the power grid and prevent further vandalism of power lines across Nigeria.
“From our work program, in six months’ times, we are going to finish SCADA. I mentioned that it is 69 per cent completed, and this project is funded by the World Bank. The World Bank was funding NETAP. In that NETAP, we have $486 million. It is out of it that we are doing the SCADA. By the time we have that SCADA completed, we will be able to see in real time whatever is happening on the grid.
“We are going to finish it. It’s not up to a month since we visited the place they are putting in the Gwagwalada in our new substation. We paid a visit there with the people from the World Bank, and the project is going well. Most of the equipment is installed. So by six months, we are going to have SCADA in our grid”, he stated.
The TCN CEO also announced a distribution target of 10,000 megawatts of electricity in the next two years, if produced by the generation companies, GENCOS, although he disclosed that the highest generated so far has been 5,801 megawatts, which is below the transmission capacity.
His words: “For the first time in our nation’s history, the power sector recorded a new and unprecedented peak generation of 5,801.84 megawatts of electricity on March 4, 2025, at 21:15 hours. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) efficiently evacuated this bulk power to distribution load centers nationwide.
“With the numerous TCN transmission projects completed in the last two years and new ones currently underway as well as the 8,500MW current evacuation capability of the company, I can confidently state that in less than two years from now, the Transmission Company of Nigeria will conveniently evacuate 10,000 megawatts of generated power.
“This unprecedented feat is the result of the hard work and dedication of our engineers in the generation, transmission and distribution companies of the power sector value chain.
“So, we are still ahead of what is generated. We are saying that with the projects we are doing in the after two years, we will be able to transmit 10,000 if it is produced by the GENCOs. How did we reach that? It is by investment. The Transmission Company of Nigeria is 100% owned by the Federal Government. Up till now, there is nobody who has come and put his money.
“All these investments are coming from the federal government. We are doing new transmission lines. We are building new substations. We are conducting all transmission lines to make sure that access capacity can be transmitted.”
The TCN boss disclosed that the power distributing company is currently exploring significant investments, such as the “Super Grid” concept which is part of the company’s comprehensive plan, to have a database for all equipment installations and removals.
This approach, he emphasized , allows the TCN to gradually strengthen and enhance the grid’s robustness and flexibility.
“We have a working plan whereby we have a database for all these equipment when they are installed, when they are supposed to be removed. So we are following them gradually, and we are making the grid stronger, more robust and flexible. There are a lot of investments we are looking at now.
“For example, now we have on our table what we call the Super grid. Some Chinese companies have put their interest that we won’t come and construct more transmission lines so that you have flexibility, meaning that once one of the lights is faulty, you can switch your power to the other one.
“Nobody will even notice that you have a problem. But as we are now, if one of the lines is faulty, we are handicapped. You can’t do anything so that those people are given light, they will not get light. So these people are coming now, but the process is a little bit long, but we’ll soon get the presidential approval, then we’ll go to Ministry of Finance, then these people will come and build those transmission lines.”
