Power supply to be restored to Northern states Nov. 3, TCN
2 min read
By Chris Ochayi
ABUJA: The Federal Government has assured that electricity supply will be restored to the Northern part of the country by Sunday November 3, 2024.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Engineer Sule Abdulaziz gave the assurance, while speaking with journalists in Abuja.
Abdulaziz noted that TCN is co-operating with the owners of the lands where TCN towers are located. He said the step aimed to make sure that they secure TCN’s transmission lines.
He said Shiroro – Mando 330kv line 1 tripped on September 9, 2024 and the patrol of the area was done, but the faulty section could not be reached due to insecurity.
According to him, “Efforts were made by using local vigilance groups who confirmed snap conductor on a tower but they could not identify the tower number.
“Arrangements were made to use the local groups to escort our engineers in the night to effect repairs in order to evade the bandits in the location.
“Unfortunately, we did not succeed because the bandits got wind of our
intentions and laid siege to the area.
“Minimum supply was maintained to the North-West corridor through the second circuit until October 13, 2024 when the second line tripped and failed to stay on trial reclosure. Local vigilance groups were again engaged to comb the area but could only access part of the safe area.
“Hence, TCN solicited the support of the Nigeria Air Force, Kaduna for unmanned aerial surveillance on October 17, 2024 and the impacted towers were
identified. They were four in number with three totally collapsed and one number twisted.
“In another related development, vandalism of Ugwuaji – Apir 330kV
line was reported on October 21, 2024 causing tripping of the lines.
Trial reclosure failed and patrol revealed damaged conductors due to vandalism.
“This compounded the transmission of bulk power to the Northern corridor as these lines serve as link between Northern and Southern area. This outage severely affected the wheeling capacity of TCN.
“The area affected has been secured with help of Nigerian Army and concerted effort is ongoing on one of the lines for restoration. Restoration of one of these lines will allow TCN to wheel about 400MW of power in that corridor. Also, TCN is intensifying efforts to repair and restore the second line on Ugwuaji – Apir on or by Sunday November 3, 2024.
“This will avail TCN to wheel substantial quantum of power through Apir to
Jos to Kaduna to Kano.
“Conclusively, TCN is working with Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) for security of personnel and site on Shiroro – Mando 330kV lines for commencement of rehabilitation of impacted towers in this axis.”.
