The Nigerian Government has plan to deliver two units of 330 KV power transmission substations in Katsina and Kano states along with the transmission lines to raise power supply in the states.
The Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Dr. Sule Abdulaziz, disclosed this while inspecting the 330/132/33kV Katsina Substation project and the Rimi Zakara Substation in Kano.
At the Katsina Substation, Abdulaziz said the transformers and structures are in place and that on completion, the substation would improve the transmission of bulk power supply to Daura, Dutsinma, Kankara and Malumfashi Substations in the state.
“We are willing, and we want to ensure that we finish this substation within one year. We will also invite Mr. President to commission the substation” Abdulaziz said.
According to him, the transmission line that will bring bulk supply to the substation is from Kano and was earlier affected by Right of Way issues.
“TCN and the government are collaborating on this, processes have been completed and the contractor will soon be back to site to finish his work and we will be able to commission this substation,” he stated.
Substation Facility
He noted that the substation facility has two units of 150MVA power transformers and two units of 60MVA power transformers.
The representative of the contractor of the Katsina project, Mustapha Maihajjo, lauded the current administration for fast tracking the Katsina Substation project’s funding.
“Since the coming of this administration, we have been able to procure about 95% of all the equipment requirements for this project,” he said.
However he noted that shipment of the materials were earlier delayed by COVID-19, but were now on ground.
The Special Assistant on Power and Energy to the Katsina State Governor, Mansur Ahmed Musa commended the Katsina Mega Substation project.
In his words “We have waited for it for a long time and we cannot wait for it to be delivered. We believe that this project will be delivered timely as the contractor and the Managing Director of TCN promised.”
At the 132/33kV Kankia Substation where the materials for the 330kV Kano to Katsina Transmission Line are stored, the MD of TCN, said they have been using part of the station as storage facility for the materials the contractor is using for the construction of the 330kV transmission line from Kano to Katsina.
He also said that the line was awarded around 2010, but the Right of Way issue in Kano affected the project execution.
According to him, “We have discussed with the Kano government, they have assisted us with paying for the land while TCN has concluded processes for the structures. So the contractor is now free to continue construction of towers and evetually the lines.
“We want to make sure that within the one year remaining for this administration, we will be able to complete that transmission line, so that Mr President will commission the project,” He explained.
At the 330/132/33kV Rimin Zakara Substation in Kano State, the TCN MD said the project started some years back and it has reached very high level of completion.
He said the transformers, the switch gears, was almost 80% complete and this is the second 330kV Substation in Kano.
According to him “Everybody knows that after Lagos in Nigeria, the next city is Kano, but it has just one 330kV substation which is not enough, this new substation will bring to two the number of 330kV substations in Kano.
The MD explained that the substation also has two units of 150MVA transformers and two units of 60MVA transformers.
Dr.Abdulaziz also visited the 30MVA 132/33kV mobile transmission Substation Bichi, which was executed in-house by TCN engineers.
The substation has been completed and will improve bulk power requirement of the state water works, Bichi and environs.
Confidence Okwuchi
