The government of Niger has ratified a financing agreement of close to US$ 33M with the Agence française de développement (AFD) or rather the French Development Agency for the construction of a national grid control center in Niamey, the capital city of the West African country.
As part of the project, an office of the distribution grid of the city will be constructed in the proposed national grid control center with funding from the World Bank. Also, a backup center with the main functions of the national control center will be built in Gorou Banda.
The main national grid control center in Niamey will be equipped with the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system and EMS (Energy Management System) while the backup center in Gorou Banda will be fitted with the simplified SCADA/EMS system.
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Other technical works include telecommunication links and equipment, and the automation of certain substations.
The objective of the project
The long-term objective of this entire project is to improve the performance of the energy system in Niger, a country that depends on the neighboring Republic of Nigeria for its electricity distribution and its power grid operation.
The proposed national grid control center in Niamey will upon completion supervise and control the entire high-voltage grid, the power plants of the NIGELEC (Nigerian Electricity Company) and of any other producer connected to the grid, and the operation of the cross-border exchanges, remotely.
Owing to its modern tools, the control center will also provide a synthetic and overall vision of the state of the power grid and facilitate its operation to ensure that customers in the West African country have a stable and high-quality electricity supply.
In addition, it will help its management to make the most appropriate decisions, with optimum reliability and security, and automate the management of the grid while improving the profitability of the Nigerian Electricity Company.
