Power Supply Outages in Kaduna State

[Press Release] The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) would like to correct erroneous reports in the media that the persistent power outage in Kaduna State is caused by maintenance work being carried out by TCN.

TCN hereby state that it is not carrying out maintenance work as alleged in the media, but is upgrading its Mando – Kakuri Transmission Lines from 80MW to 240MW

, to significantly improve power supply to Kaduna. The transmission lines upgrade is carried out ONLY on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am- 5 pm. TCN is therefore not responsible for any outage beyond this period in Kaduna South only.

According to the General Manager (Public Affairs), Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s decision to undertake the upgrade of the transmission lines on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am to 5 pm, is to ensure that inconvenience to electricity customers is minimized. Moreover, the upgrade should cause power supply interruption to only electricity customers in Kaduna South, during the weekends for 9hours only.

TCN explained that the transmission lines upgrade became necessary because TCN is doubling the transformer capacity of its Kaduna Town Transmission Station from 120MVA to 240MVA, in line with its grid expansion plan. On completion, there would be increased electricity supply to Kaduna State through the Mando-Kakuri transmission line. The Company further stated that the upgrade of the transmission line is the only way the impact of the two additional brand new 60MVA power transformers can be felt by electricity consumers in Kaduna.

The company also noted that although the Nigeria Electricity Industry is still facing a liquidity problem, the only way that TCN’s rehabilitation and expansion programme can give maximum benefit to the nation is if a commensurate investment is done on the various distribution networks nationwide. This is because inadequacies in the distribution networks are limiting the amount of power delivered to end-users daily.

TCN is committed to the execution its grid expansion plan, in line with the Federal Governments policy on incremental power. The Mando-Kakuri transmission lines upgrade in Kaduna is an integral part of this process and when completed, would boost power transmission capacity to distribution load centers supplying power to Kaduna South area of the state.

Source: Transmission Company of Nigeria