Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack has urged management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to ensure that the December 2012 target of 5,000 megawatts of grid-delivered power is achieved.

He gave the charge at an interactive session with the TCN management team to review the recent rise in the frequency of grid collapses, a statement issued by the task force's spokeswoman, Awele Okigbo, said yesterday.

The meeting dealt with the immediate and remote causes of the collapses and identified remedies including short and long term delivery times, it said. isolated cases of vandalism of live power generation side triggers were identified as contributing about 60 percent to collapse incidents, just as overgrown vegetation in wet season and logging activities' interacting with high voltage power lines were worsening such incidents, the statement noted.

"Isolated cases of vandalism at live power facilities where 'these perpetrators compromise the power lines by bridging targeted segments of the power grid to cause forced outages in order for them to steal installed power facilities," was also noted.

The task force chairman, Engr. Dagogo -Jack informed the TCN management that the Federal Government had designed mitigation plans in the immediate term to address the challenges.

These include provision of funding in the 2013 project for outsourced regular mechanized clearing and maintenance of the transmission right of way, procurement of major spare parts for rehabilitation and upgrading of the protection systems, among others.

To be addressed also is "the fast aging and depleting technical personnel in all aspects of the transmission operations - especially in power line maintenance," the statement said, adding, the PTFP chairman is committed to engage with the Ministry of Power and the Presidential Action Committee on Power to address this issue.