By Yange Ikyaa
The Federal Government is making effort 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), Engr. Dr. Sule Abdulaziz, disclosed this while inspecting the 330/132/33kV Katsina Substation project and the Rimin Zakara Substation in Kano. His recent visit there was at the instance of the Minister of Power, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu.
Speaking at the Katsina substation, Abdulaziz said the transformers and structures are in place at the Katsina substation, and that on completion, the substation will 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”, said Abdulaziz.
The TCN boss said that the transmission line that will bring bulk supply to the substation is from Kano and was earlier affected by Right of Way issues.
According to him, “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 further 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, Engr. Mustapha Maihajjo, lauded the current administration for fast-tracking the Katsina substation project’s funding. He said, “since the coming of this administration, we have been able to procure about 95% of all the equipment requirements for this project”, noting also 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, Engr. Abdulaziz, said “we are 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.”
Abdulaziz also said 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 State 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 eventually 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.”
At the 330/132/33kV Rimin Zakara Substation in Kano State, the TCN MD said “we have started this project some years back and it has reached very high level of completion. As you can see, the transformers, the switch gears, everything here is now almost 80% complete and this is the second 330kV Substation in Kano.
“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 substation, he said is almost 80% completed and the transmission line that will bring power to substation is being executed.
“That is why the Minister of Power, Engineer Abubakar D. Aliyu, asked me to come for this visit to access the current state of project execution, to ensure the project is being executed properly,” he said.
The MD explained that the substation also has two units of 150MVA transformers and two units of 60MVA transformers.
Also on clearing transmission line Right of Way to the substation, Abdulaziz informed that the Kano State Government has paid for the land, while TCN has concluded processes to pay for structures. The government has also given land to relocate those whose lands were directly affected by the substation project.
“By the time we complete this project, the line to Katsina will start from here and will feed the 330/132/33kV Katsina Substation,” the TCN boss assured.
He 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 requirements of the state water works, Bichi and environs.