From Fred Itua, Abuja
The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), on Tuesday, asked the National Assembly to provide the necessary framework aimed at unbundling the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to enable it perform optimally.
Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, made the appeal when the Senate Committee on Power, led by its chairman, Eyinnaya Abaribe was on oversight visit to the commission on Tuesday.
He said the TCN which is in the middle of the value chain in the power sector has too many uncompleted projects, thereby affecting its performance.
He said: “On TCN, which is siting in the middle of he value chain, we are concerned about the capital required to make TCN a world class transmission company.
“The prayer from NERC will be to get the support of the National Assembly through more budgetary allocations or other means. There are too many uncompleted projects in the TCN with little potential of improving service.
“There are issues o reforms and unbundling of the TCN and we hope that the National Assembly will provide the necessary support. Mr president has approved presidential metering initiated to quickly close the metering gap and we plead for the support of the National Assembly in delivering on this initiative from the presidency.”
The committee also moved to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) for oversight, where the new Acting Managing Director, Abba Aliyu, said the agency was providing mini grid power plants in some states, Abuja and some federal universities to make the use of generating sets unattractive.