…disputes Gwagwalada tower vandalism as main cause 

Oredola Adeola

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has debunked the notion that the current power challenges in Abuja and environs, stem from the Gwagwalada tower vandalism incident which happened on February 26, 2024, and therefore attributed the widespread power issues to low load allocation due to insufficient power generation across the national grid.

Ndidi Mbah, TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, made this known in a statement released on Friday and obtained by the Advisors Reports.

According to her, power is supplied to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) bulk power for Abuja and environs through three major 330kV transmission lines.

She added that the three bulk power sources are to ensure flexibility and reliability.

According to the statement, “Contrary to recent publication in the media, therefore, the Gwagwalada incident impacted the redundancy and flexibility of bulk supply and not the capability of TCN to supply adequate bulk supply to Abuja and environs.

“This simply means that the wheeling capacity of TCN to Abuja has not been affected because the available 2 x 33kV Shiroro-Ketampe Transmision lines are sufficient to convey allocated power to Abuja.

“It is important to note that the current power situation being experienced generally is a result of low load allocation, caused by the low power generation into the nation’s grid,” she stated.

As of the time this report was compiled on Saturday, Advisors Reports noted that AEDC had accessed 442MW out of the total 2,868MW distributed among all eleven DisCos, a result of the limited power generation feeding into the national grid.