By Anastasia Agunwa :
The nation’s capital, Abuja, will be the first recipient of the super transmission transformers ordered by the Federal Government from Siemens under the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI).
The Minister of Power, Engr Abubakar Aliyu who disclosed this at the weekend while inspecting transmission projects in the Federal Capital Territory, said the mega transformer will be installed in Abuja this week.
Engr. Aliyu said that government plans to improve the transmission capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN) with an additional 1000MW through the Abuja Ring Project.
Aliyu, who inspected the Abuja Ring Projects in company of the Managing Director of TCN, Engr. Sule Abdulaziz, said that the projects which are six in number were made up of lines and substations.
He said the Abuja ring project is funded through a $170 million loan from the French Development Agency.
He stated that the “The project is about six and they are over 90 per cent completed and hope to be completed November/December, the contractor is chasing the completion date and when completed it will increase power supply in Abuja and environ”.
“This project is funded by a loan of $170 million dollars from the French Development Agency (AFD) and started by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration in 2018 in the quest to increase the capacity of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)”.
He explained that the projects consist of a new substation in Dawaki, Gwarimpa, New Apo substation, Old Apo existing substation, amongst others.
According to him, there has been a 132 Kilovolt (KV) line existing from Suleja to Katampe which initially was at Kubwa.
He said the new substation would give Dawaki and environs more electricity as they have been depending on Kubwa.
“The new Apo substation is a new one and is receiving a 330 KVA line from Nasarawa to boost supply in Abuja and environ,” he said.
On the Siemens Power Project, the Minister said that some engineers would be going to France before the end of the month to do a factory test on some transformers.
He said that a platform had been built at Old Apo Substation to receive a 60 Megavolt Ampere transformer from the Siemens Power Project and that in a couple of days, it will be installed.
Engr. Aliyu said that some of the transformers were already in the country and some on the high sea.
