Vandals remove 372MW from national grid

Power supply to electricity distribution companies from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has dropped to 3,682 Mega Watts (MW).

Specifically, it shed 372MW from the 4,054.07MW of November 11, according to the Power Statistic that the Federal Ministry of Power posted on its website on Tuesday.

In the period under review, the electricity generation companies produced 3,754.96MW but the TCN recorded 72.64MW spinning reserve.

The statistics also showed that power generation in the period under review dropped by 383.4MW from the 4,138.36MW generated on November 11.

The electricity market, however, recorded a peak energy generation of 4,810.7 MW while the peak energy generation was 4,498.3MW as at November 11.

TCN however said that tower no 62, along the Okpai-Onitsha 330kV double circuit transmission line, evacuating power from the Okpai Power Station in Delta State, has been vandalised.

The incident which took place at Asaba Uchi, Ndokwa East Local Government, has resulted in the reduction of available power to the national grid by about 480MW.

Read also: Power supply drops by 388.83MW

According to the release, “at about 4:51 am on Tuesday, 10th November, 2015, the Okpai – Onitsha 330kV transmission line tripped and the cause of the tripping was traced to tower No 62, which had been vandalised. Two of the four legs of the transmission tower were cut by vandals, causing the tower to hang precariously. This poses a major threat to transmission grid integrity as a total collapse of this tower could bring down several other towers along the transmission line route.”

Ripples gathered that the TCN management and its quick response engineering crew inspected the site of the incident, located in the swampy forest of Asaba Uchi, the same day, and have already mobilised a reputable engineering contracting firm to anchor the transmission tower temporarily, to avoid total collapse.

Anchoring the vandalised tower will enable TCN energise one of the circuits on the tower, to enable it recommence partial power evacuation from the Okapi Power Station to the national grid. This is expected to be achieved within a fortnight.

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