The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has given reasons why most parts of Northern Nigeria experience power outage, News About Nigeria reports.
The company disclosed that its 330kV Ugwaji-Apir Double Circuit transmission lines 1 & 2 tripped due to a fault, resulting in a forced power outage affecting the communities in the north-east, north-west, and parts of north-central.
The TCN General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, made this known in a statement on Tuesday.
She stated that at approximately 4:53 a.m. on Monday, the Ugwuaji-Markurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped and 243 MW on that line was transferred to Line 1 on the same route, adding that at 4:58 a.m., Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW.
Mbah noted that throughout Monday, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating challenging terrain in search of the fault, reaching as far as the River Benue.
She, however, stated that the lines patrol team from the Enugu Region of TCN was unable to commence lines patrol on Monday due to the ‘sit-at-home’ directive in the southeast for 21 and 22 October.
Mbah said, “By around 5:15 a.m. and 5:17 a.m., Line 1 and Line 2 were tried, but they all tripped immediately on the same relay indication.
“Following the tripping incidents yesterday, two teams of linesmen were dispatched. One from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and another from the Enugu Transmission to expedite fault tracing along the 215 km route, which includes 245 transmission towers.
“They were unable to locate the cause of the tripping and have continued in the fault tracing early this morning.
“Arrangements were, however, made for security operatives to guide the team, who have commenced fault tracing this morning.
“TCN is making every effort to trace the cause of the outage to enable our engineers to effect repairs and restore bulk power supply through both lines.
“We sincerely apologise to the government and electricity consumers in all the affected states and acknowledge that our patrol teams would have continued their search into the night yesterday, if not for the challenging terrain, which includes swamps and rivers, as well as insecure areas in the forest.
“We reconvened very early this morning with security operatives and have continued the fault tracing to locate and address the cause of the line tripping.”
