Minister of Power Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe on Tuesday commissioned upgraded transmission infrastructure at Alausa and Lekki in Lagos, adding a combined 272MW of bulk power capacity to two of the state’s most commercially important corridors.
The projects, delivered by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, are designed to remove local transmission constraints, improve grid stability and create greater capacity for electricity to flow to distribution companies serving homes and businesses.
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At Alausa, an existing 30MVA transformer was replaced with a 100MVA unit, raising the substation’s total capacity from 135MVA to 205MVA.
The upgrade increases bulk power available to Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, IKEDC, by 80MW and is expected to strengthen supply around one of Lagos’s major commercial and administrative districts.
At Lekki, TCN installed two additional 60MVA, 132/33kV transformers and nine new 33kV feeders.
The work doubles the substation’s 132/33kV capacity from 120MVA to 240MVA, representing an increase of about 192MW.
The Lekki development is particularly significant for an area that has become a major centre for manufacturing, logistics, real estate and other investment activity.
Tegbe said the projects reflected a deliberate strategy by the Federal Government to identify and remove infrastructure constraints rather than focus solely on headline generation figures.
“Identify the bottleneck. Invest in it. Remove the constraint. Unlock the capacity,” the minister said.
He linked the intervention to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s broader effort to tackle infrastructure limitations that have constrained Nigeria’s economic potential.
Tegbe said ageing equipment and stranded capacity would continue to be addressed across the country as the government seeks to make electricity more available and reliable.
The emphasis on transmission upgrades comes as the Federal Government reshapes its approach to the electricity sector.
Tegbe recently said the immediate priority was improving service delivery, expanding metering and making the electricity market more sustainable rather than increasing tariffs.
The minister has also argued that progress in the sector should ultimately be judged by the number of communities and people receiving reliable electricity, rather than simply by the number of megawatts generated.
At Alausa, TCN Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz said the project was executed by Shanghai Electric Limited under a World Bank-funded initiative.
Once energised, the upgraded facility is expected to provide more stable and reliable electricity to at least 70,000 residents through IKEDC.
Abdulaziz said the additional capacity would also allow more bulk electricity to reach distribution companies for onward delivery across their franchise areas.
The TCN chief described the project as evidence of the company’s commitment to strengthening the national transmission network.
“TCN remains resolute in its mandate of building and sustaining a robust transmission network,” Abdulaziz said, adding that the network must be capable of transporting Nigeria’s growing power needs to distribution load centres nationwide.
The wider transmission picture remains important to understanding the significance of the Lagos projects.
Abdulaziz said in June that TCN’s network had a wheeling capacity of about 8,700MW, considerably above Nigeria’s historic peak generation of 5,801.84MW recorded on March 4, 2025.
That gap highlights one of the central challenges facing Nigeria’s electricity market.
Increasing generation alone does not guarantee improved supply if available power cannot be reliably moved through the grid and delivered to distribution networks.
The Lekki project is also part of a larger investment programme.
Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited is executing the work with World Bank support, while an additional 300MVA, 330/132kV transformer is expected to be energised at the facility in November 2026.
That further expansion could provide additional headroom for the fast-growing Lekki corridor, although the eventual benefit to consumers will also depend on the performance of distribution infrastructure beyond the transmission interface.
The commissioning therefore represents an important infrastructure milestone, but it is not by itself a complete solution to Lagos’s electricity challenges.
Reliable supply depends on coordination across generation, transmission and distribution, as well as adequate investment, maintenance and the financial health of the electricity market.
Tegbe commended TCN, the Nigerian Independent System Operator, EKEDC and IKEDC, alongside Shanghai Electric Group and the World Bank, for their roles in delivering the projects.
He also congratulated Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for maintaining what he described as an enabling environment for infrastructure investment.
For Lagos, the immediate significance is clear: more transmission capacity is being placed closer to major centres of economic activity.
If the additional capacity is fully utilised and supported by adequate distribution infrastructure, the upgrades could provide a meaningful boost to the reliability of electricity reaching businesses and communities across the Alausa and Lekki corridors.
The projects also offer a tangible test of the Federal Government’s stated strategy of tackling structural bottlenecks in the power system.
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The next measure of success will not simply be the additional megawatts installed, but how much of that capacity ultimately reaches consumers consistently.
Ibrahim Onipede is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
