How 330KV Ugwuaji-Apir transmission lines tripped North into darkness
By Tada Jutha, Maiduguri
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has attributed the tripping of the 330KV Ugwuaji-Apir transmission lines to an electric fault in the Northeast, Northwest and Northcentral parts of the country.
According to TCN, the tripping of the two transmission lines has plunged the North into darkness since last Sunday.
The Public Affairs General Manager of the company, Ndidi Mbah, stated yesterday, in Maiduguri that; “At 4:53am on Sunday, the Ugwuaji–Markurdi 330kv line two tripped, while the 243 megawatts of electricity on that line was, however, transferred to line 1 of the same transmission line.”
He said that an hour after, the same transmission line also tripped, resulting into the loss of 468 megawatts of electricity to the public.
Besides, he added that between 5:15am and 5:17am, lines 1 and 2 were tried by TCN, but the transmission lines tripped immediately on the same relay indications.
Additionally, he said that following the tripping incidents, two teams of linesmen were dispatched.
Mbah further disclosed that two fault-detecting teams were deployed to the Apir and Enugu Transmission Sub-regions.
He said the fault-detecting engineers are to expedite the fault tracing along the 215 km route, comprising 245 electric transmission towers.
According to him, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating the challenging difficult terrains in search of the faulted transmission line reaching as far to River Benue.
He said that despite the search for the defaulting transmission lines, they were unable to locate the cause of the tripping and continued in the fault tracing in the early hours of Monday.
Meanwhile, the lines patrol team from Enugu Region of TCN were unable to commence lines patrol yesterday due to the ‘sit-at-home’ directive in the Southeast for two days.
Mbah lamented that this has hindered not only the patrol team from power fault detection, but made it difficult to refuel the patrol vehicles for long-distance line trace.
He explained that arrangements were, however, made for the security agencies to guide the TCN team, who have commenced the electric fault tracing.
Meanwhile, electricity has been onto the 132KV transmission line from the New Haven to Apir communities.
He, therefore, apologized that the 330KV lines remain out of service, that had been providing electricity in the North.
Sadly, he announced that the TCN Shiroro-Mando transmission line is also down due to insecurity, causing power outages in the north parts of country.
As electricity is being restore in the affected regions, the GM apologized to the government and customers and assured that the patrol teams would continue with the electric fault-detections.
He said if not for the difficult terrain, which comprises swamps and rivers, as well as the insecure forested areas, the faulting transmission lines could have been detected for instant repairs.
