Siemens to install 3,800 electricity transformers across Nigeria as part of electrification plan

GERMAN manufacturing giant Siemens plans to install 3,800 electricity transformers across Nigeria as part of an ongoing ambitious electrification plan it has entered into with the federal government to end the nation's perennial power problems.

Nigeria has a chronic power supply problem as she needs about 50,000MW but only generates 7,000MW, of which less than 4,000MW can be distributed. As a result, the economy is run through the use of private generators, making Nigeria the world's largest buyers of small and medium generators and the second biggest purchaser of large machines.

In a bid to find a solution to the crisis, the Nigerian government has entered into a pact with Siemens to distribute power across the country. Sale Mamman, Nigeria's minister of power, explained that the 3,800 power and distribution transformers would come under the first phase of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) deal with the German government and Siemens.

Nigeria's Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the payment of €15.21m (N6.9bn) offshore and N1.7bn onshore as part of the country's counterpart funding for the power deal with Siemens. Last month, the total amount approved by FEC for the deal was N8.64bn.

Providing a breakdown on some of the distribution projects as proposed by power distribution companies to be implemented in phase one of the deal, the power ministry said 3,765 distribution transformers would be deployed.  Then, 35 would be provided in phase one of the PPI/Siemens deal.

Furthermore, 11 units of trailer mounted transformers would be deployed, while 431 units of auxiliary equipment would be made available. In July 2019, the Nigerian federal government and Siemens signed a letter of agreement on the Nigeria Electrification Road Map.

This was after President Muhammadu Buhari and German chancellor Angela Merkel, met on August 31, 2018, in Abuja to agree the project. Under phase one of the deal, a total of 1,904 units of protective devices would be deployed across electricity distribution projects, also, 11 units of safety and testing equipment are to be made available, while 33 units of software licences would be provided.