omrade Bede Opara is the national president of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC). In this interview with Taiwo Ogunmola-Omilani, he speaks on issues bedevilling power generation in the country. Excerpts

What is your union’s position on the federal government’s recent renewal of the management contract of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) with Manitoba Hydro International (MHI) Limited of Canada?

Well, we read in the national newspapers about the extension of the contract awarded to Manitoba Hydro International Limited (MHI) to manage the operations of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). This extension according to the report, was for a period of one year, which will expire on 31st July 2016. This was after the expiration of an initial three-year contract under which the company managed the transmission arm of the power sector in Nigeria. We are not comfortable with the renewal of the agreement because there is more to it. We are of the opinion that before the extension, government should have carefully and clearly evaluated the assignment and job carried out by MHI in improving transmission and the wheeling capacity of the transmission lines with measurable milestones as contained in the contract. We wonder why so much emphasis was placed on the contract renewal rather than an assessment of the impact that the MHI has had on improving and strengthening the operational capacities of TCN.

Are you saying government didn’t assess the level of job done by MHI before signing a renewal of the contract?

It is not enough to lay claims to improving the power generation capacity that peaked at 4545mw recently, which was as a result of better and improved supply of gas to the thermal stations. It is necessary to ask how to raise the wheeling power of TCN to accommodate and sustain increased or improved generation. It is also necessary that we know the structure the MHI has put in place to accommodate this increased generation in the nearest future because we are aware that a lot of generated megawatts are lost due to the inability of TCN in some locations to evacuate them into the grid. We note that during the last contract period of three years, there was a glaring lack of coordination between the expatriate and Nigerian teams in TCN. There was no team spirit among the management contractors, and also, between the management contractors and their Nigerian counterparts. We expect a better-coordinated work regime, which regrettably is absent.We also expect amongst other matters, serious and committed training programmes of Nigerians – an assignment that constitute part of the MHI contract. There is an urgent need to look inwards in order to identify any challenges that might negatively affect the schedules and plans by Nigerian operators or the management contractors. We expect the TCN as a technical arm of the power sector to be independent and insulated from partisanship political interests and influences to meet the nation’s overall target for the power sector of installed power generation capacity from 6,000MW in 2009 to 20,000MW by 2015 and 35,000MW by 2020.

http://leadership.ng/business/451482/power-generation-may-increase-to-7000mw-by-december-opara

olas24u:
omrade Bede Opara is the national president of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC). In this interview with Taiwo Ogunmola-Omilani, he speaks on issues bedevilling power generation in the country. Excerpts

What is your union’s position on the federal government’s recent renewal of the management contract of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) with Manitoba Hydro International (MHI) Limited of Canada?

Well, we read in the national newspapers about the extension of the contract awarded to Manitoba Hydro International Limited (MHI) to manage the operations of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). This extension according to the report, was for a period of one year, which will expire on 31st July 2016. This was after the expiration of an initial three-year contract under which the company managed the transmission arm of the power sector in Nigeria. We are not comfortable with the renewal of the agreement because there is more to it. We are of the opinion that before the extension, government should have carefully and clearly evaluated the assignment and job carried out by MHI in improving transmission and the wheeling capacity of the transmission lines with measurable milestones as contained in the contract. We wonder why so much emphasis was placed on the contract renewal rather than an assessment of the impact that the MHI has had on improving and strengthening the operational capacities of TCN.

Are you saying government didn’t assess the level of job done by MHI before signing a renewal of the contract?

It is not enough to lay claims to improving the power generation capacity that peaked at 4545mw recently, which was as a result of better and improved supply of gas to the thermal stations. It is necessary to ask how to raise the wheeling power of TCN to accommodate and sustain increased or improved generation. It is also necessary that we know the structure the MHI has put in place to accommodate this increased generation in the nearest future because we are aware that a lot of generated megawatts are lost due to the inability of TCN in some locations to evacuate them into the grid. We note that during the last contract period of three years, there was a glaring lack of coordination between the expatriate and Nigerian teams in TCN. There was no team spirit among the management contractors, and also, between the management contractors and their Nigerian counterparts. We expect a better-coordinated work regime, which regrettably is absent.We also expect amongst other matters, serious and committed training programmes of Nigerians – an assignment that constitute part of the MHI contract. There is an urgent need to look inwards in order to identify any challenges that might negatively affect the schedules and plans by Nigerian operators or the management contractors. We expect the TCN as a technical arm of the power sector to be independent and insulated from partisanship political interests and influences to meet the nation’s overall target for the power sector of installed power generation capacity from 6,000MW in 2009 to 20,000MW by 2015 and 35,000MW by 2020.

http://leadership.ng/business/451482/power-generation-may-increase-to-7000mw-by-december-opara

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