North-East Electricity Outage: TCN Reaffirms May 27 Restoration Timeline

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reaffirmed its commitment to restoring electricity to the North-East on May 27 as earlier stated.

The company made the affirmation in response to the concerns raised by the North East Governors Forum (NEGF) at its 10th meeting in Bauchi on Saturday, alleging that the region had been neglected in infrastructural development.

TCN’s general manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah who disclosed this in a statement she made available on Tuesday said, the work is already at an advanced stage.

Mbah said, the company is unaware of the significant difficulties and challenges the lack of power supply poses to the areas, and the concerns of the governors for their people and the day-to-day running of governance and businesses.

However, she noted that the company has been working tirelessly to rebuild the four towers destroyed by the vandals, and would not rest until power is restored to the affected areas.

She, therefore, appealed for a little more patience, as work is truly advancing, adding that the company is pushing its contractors very hard to ensure that it delivers on its promise of rebuilding the towers and energising the transmission line.

She affirmed that “despite the recent increase in vandalism, we have continued to rebuild towers each time they are damaged and have consistently restored supply. The four vandalised towers on the Gombe axis are no exception. Despite our prevailing poor liquidity, we have mobilised all necessary resources to ensure this job gets the attention it requires.

“To expedite the work, we have insisted that the contractor put in place on-site machines that will help increase the fabrication processes of tower members which is ongoing. A visit to the site will show that the towers are nearing completion, with one tower at 90 per cent completion, another at 80 per cent, a third at 60 per cent, and the fourth at 40 per cent.

“We are utilising all available daylight hours for the work. However, due to security issues, we are unable to work through the night, which we would have gladly done. Nevertheless, we are optimistic about completing the reconstruction and energising the line within the given time frame. We expect power supply to be restored by May 27, 2024, through the new 330kV transmission line, allowing Yola and Jos DisCos to offtake and distribute optimally from TCN substations.

“Again, we appeal for your patience and sincerely assure you that we are working very hard to complete the work within the timeframe. It is our joy to serve you and the nation at large, and we would be truly happy and grateful to God for the quick completion of the work. Please bear with us”, she said.