TCN Secures $1.4bn Funding for Power Grid Expansion

TCN Secures $1.4bn Funding for Power Grid Expansion

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has secured more than $1.4bn, equivalent to about N1.87tn, in loans and grants from multilateral development partners to expand the national electricity grid this year, as the company raised its transmission capacity to more than 8,700 megawatts.

The investment, mobilised largely over the past 12 months, has financed the expansion of transmission infrastructure, including the commissioning of 89 power transformers across the country.

The TCN Executive Director, Transmission Service Provider, Ajiboye Oluwagbenga, disclosed this during a training workshop on Thursday in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

Oluwagbenga said the funds were secured through partnerships with international development institutions and financiers, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and Agence Française de Développement.

According to him, the investments have significantly strengthened the transmission network and created enough capacity to move substantially more electricity across the country, although the full 8,700MW capacity has yet to be physically tested.

Oluwagbenga said the expansion of the grid had come at a high financial cost. “These things don’t come cheap at all. The investment made so far, accumulated in the last 12 months, that we have secured is in excess of $1.4bn from multilateral and development financing mobilised for TCN expansion.

“When we are talking about the transmission wheeling capacity, we stand at 8,700MW. It has not been physically tested, but it has been simulated. So presently, that is where we are,” he said.

He explained that the company was deliberately being conservative in its assessment, noting that additional…