The Federal Government is set to commission three power transmission substations out of the five substations comprising the Abuja Feeding Scheme in Abuja which will add 820 megawatts (MW) to the national grid by December 2022.

The Managing Director/CEO of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Engr. Dr. Sule Abdulaziz, made this known on Wednesday, 5th October 2022, during an inspection tour of the five ongoing substation projects currently being undertaken under the Abuja Feeding Scheme.

The Abuja Feeding Scheme project which is worth $170 million (N70.4 billion currently) is being funded by the French Development Agency (AFD), comprises five substations, 143km of 330kV line from Lafia in Nasarawa State to Abuja, and 81km of 132kV transmission lines within Abuja. It commenced in April 2019 and is expected to be commissioned in December 2022. 

“If we talk about the transformers, we're going to have 820MW; for the transmission line, we are going to have 1,465MW which shows that our capacity of transmission line is higher and it means in the future, we can build more substations, we don't have to upgrade our lines,” Engr. Abdulaziz explained.

At 132/33kV Gwarinpa GIS, the facility has two units of 60MVA transformers and is at 93 percent completed by Sieyuan Electric. “This is one of the substations we are building to make sure that there is adequate power in Abuja. By the time we finish these substations, for the next 50 years, Abuja will not have any problem with electricity,” he further assured.

Speaking at the 132kV Wumba - Lokogoma substation with two units of 60MVA transformers and at 92% completion level, Abdulaziz directed the Chinese contracting firm, Sieyuan Electric, to double the work pace and to fast-track its completion by December 2022 instead of February 2023 earlier scheduled.

He said, “This Administration started this project in 2019 and we are determined to ensure its completion and commissioning during the lifetime of this Administration. So, this station will come on stream by December 2022.”

At the flagship 330kV New Apo-Pigba substation, the construction work was ongoing at 62% work level.

The 132kV Kuje substation has three units of 60MVA power transformers and has reached 92% work level by Sieyuan Electric while the 132kV Lugbe West substation with two units of 150MVA and handled by Grid Solutions of GE is just at 61% completion level.