*As TCN announces partial grid collapse
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced the collapse of its tower number 388 along the Jos-Bauchi, 132kV Single Circuit transmission line due to the activities of vandals.
Ndidi Mbah, General Manager, Public Affairs , in a statement stated that the incident, suspected to have occurred on the first of February, 2024, at about 10:20PM, led to a power outage in Yobe and Borno States.
He recalled that following a line trip in Jos, Plateau State and past experiences associated with line tripping in that axis, the General Manager, Transmission of Bauchi Region, Engr. Tijjani Ahmadu invited the police anti-bomb squad and the Department of State Services (DSS) to accompany the TCN line crew and investigate the transmission line to find the cause of the tripping.
The statement said upon inspection, the team uncovered remnants of detonated explosives by vandals by the tower legs, which had exploded and caused the tower to collapse.
“This incident mirrors a recent and similar act on December 21, 2023, which brought down towers T372 and T373 along the Gombe-Damaturu 330kV Single Circuit transmission line, killing a security operative and affecting power supply in the same Yobe and Borno States.
“The line and towers from the December incident were fully reconstructed and energized on 2nd February 2024.”
TCN said it has engaged one of its contractors on an emergency basis to quickly mobilize to the site of the incident to commence the reconstruction and restringing of the affected line and tower.
” TCN is determined to keep working at rehabilitating and further expanding the nation’s bulk power transmission network, to ensure consistent bulk power transmission, it is pertinent to note that the continued vandalism and theft of power equipment is a constant setback to the ongoing implementation of the transmission system expansion plan.
“This is because funds earmarked for grid expansion are usually diverted as a matter of emergency to repair vandalized power infrastructure, and sometimes to avert grid collapse.”
TCN also announced that the grid experienced a partial disturbance at about 11.21hours on Sunday with Ibom power Islanded feeding Eket, Ekim, I turned and Uyo transmission substations, during the period of partial disturbance.
” Prior to the incident, total generation on the grid was 3,901.25 MW at 08.00hour a little over three hours before time of partial collapse.
It is important to note that low power generation has persisted since January 2024 to date, exacerbating daily due to the lingering gas constraints.”
According to the National Control Center (NCC), the Internet of Things (IoT) revealed that just before the partial disturbance, which occurred at 11:21Hrs Sunday, Sapele Steam & Egbin Substations lost a total of 29.32MW & 343.84MW at 11:20:14Hrs & 11:20:17Hrs respectively, totalling 373.16MW
