Transmission No Longer Nigeria’s Power Problem -TCN

The Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Engr Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, has declared that Nigeria’s transmission network is not the major bottleneck in the power sector.

He declared that the national grid can currently wheel 8,700 megawatts (MW), far above the country’s highest-ever power generation of 5,801.84MW.

Speaking at the ongoing four-day Parliamentary/Stakeholders’ Engagement Summit on Power Sector Reforms in Nigeria in Lagos, Abdulaziz said available data showed that transmission infrastructure has the capacity to handle significantly more electricity than is currently being generated and supplied to the grid.

According to him, while Nigeria’s installed generation capacity stands at 13,625MW, the highest power ever generated and delivered to the national grid was 5,801.84MW, recorded on March 4, 2025.

He said: “On the same day, the country also achieved a record daily energy delivery of 128,370.75 megawatt-hours (MWh).

“The implication is clear: the national grid can currently transmit significantly more power than has ever been generated and supplied to it.

“TCN has consistently wheeled all available generation, demonstrating that the transmission network is ready to support higher levels of electricity delivery,” he said.

Abdulaziz described TCN’s achievements in recent years, noting that the company had expanded Nigeria’s bulk power wheeling capacity from about 7,000MW to 8,700MW through strategic investments backed by the Federal Government and development partners.

He disclosed that between January 2024 and November 2025, TCN commissioned 82 transformers nationwide, adding approximately 8,500 MVA of transformation capacity to the national grid.

The TCN boss also revealed that the company had secured more than $1.4bn in development financing from international partners, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the French Development Agency (AFD), to support transmission expansion and modernisation projects nationwide.

He added that the company was advancing the deployment of a nationwide Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to improve real-time grid monitoring, fault management, dispatch efficiency and future smart-grid operations.

Despite the progress, Abdulaziz identified vandalism of transmission infrastructure, encroachment on transmission rights-of-way, inadequate funding, foreign exchange constraints, weak market liquidity and land acquisition challenges as major obstacles facing the electricity sector.

He stated that unlocking Nigeria’s electricity potential would require coordinated investments across the entire value chain, including generation, gas supply, transmission and distribution.

While affirming TCN’s support for the implementation of the Electricity Act 2023, Abdulaziz called on the National Assembly to strengthen legal protections for critical electricity infrastructure, ensure adequate funding for priority transmission projects and support policies that would improve the financial sustainability of the electricity market.

He maintained that a reliable electricity supply could only be achieved through a sector-wide approach involving government, regulators, investors, security agencies and communities.