…170,000 households, 580,000 residents to benefit

…FG targets 6,000MW wheeling capacity by year-end

By Mariam Eko

LAGOS — The Federal Government has commissioned upgraded transmission facilities at four major substations in Lagos, adding about 360 megawatts (MW) to the state’s transmission capacity and improving bulk electricity supply to residential, commercial and industrial consumers.

The projects, located at Ijora, Apapa Road, Alausa and Lekki substations, are expected to strengthen power delivery within the networks of Eko and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Companies.

Speaking during the commissioning of the projects, Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said the investments were aimed at removing transmission bottlenecks and improving the reliability of electricity supply.

“These infrastructures have been here for over 25 years. What we are doing is commissioning new power transformers in Apapa, Ijora, Alausa and Lekki transmission substations.

“This is important as it will increase our wheeling capacity and also improve our delivery to end-users,” he said.

At the Ijora transmission substation, two new 100MVA transformers increased installed capacity from 90MVA to 230MVA, adding about 112MW.

The Apapa Road substation also received two 60MVA transformers and modern gas-insulated switchgear, raising its capacity from 60MVA to 180MVA and adding about 96MW.

At Alausa, an existing 30MVA transformer was replaced with a 100MVA unit, increasing the substation’s total capacity from 135MVA to 205MVA and adding about 56MW.

The additional capacity has also increased power allocation to Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company to 80MW.

At Lekki, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) commissioned two 60MVA transformers, one 300MVA transformer and nine additional 33kV feeders.

The intervention doubled transformation capacity at the 132/33kV level from 120MVA to 240MVA.

Tegbe said the Alausa intervention alone had the capacity to serve about 70,000 households, representing approximately 180,000 people, while the Lekki project was expected to benefit about 100,000 customers, representing an estimated 400,000 people.

The minister said the Federal Government was working to significantly increase the country’s electricity wheeling capacity.

“Our target is that by the end of this year, we should conveniently wheel 6,000MW in this country, and we are projecting that in the next one or two years, we should increase to 8,000MW,” he said.

He added that the government’s approach was to identify and address bottlenecks within the power transmission network.

“Our approach as a government is deliberate. We identify the bottlenecks, invest in them, remove constraints and unlock capacity,” Tegbe said.

The Managing Director of TCN, Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, said the projects were supported by the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with Shanghai Electric involved in their execution.

The upgrades are expected to improve the capacity of the transmission network to deliver bulk electricity to distribution companies and support growing residential, commercial and industrial demand across Lagos.