The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said that Friday’s inferno at Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, that led to the collapse of 5 high tension towers was caused by petroleum products pipeline vandals.
The inferno occurred at vandalised pipeline on Isheri Olofin, off Igbando-LASU Expressway and it caused massive damage to the 330KV Ikeja-West Akangba Transmission Line 1.
This disclosure was made by the Spokesperson of TCN, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, in Abuja, saying that the inferno burned off a large portion of the electricity conductor.
According to NAN, Mbah stated that the inferno triggered a resistant pull on the high-tension towers along the line route, causing five of them to collapse.
She said, “The incident which is estimated to have occurred at about 12.29 a.m. on Friday, burnt a wide portion of the 330kv transmission line which wheels 145mw of bulk power to the Akangba Substation.
“The transmission towers affected are the two closest to the site of the inferno and three across the Lagos Canal.
“As a result of the incident, there is a major reduction of bulk power wheeled to TCN’s 330/132/33kV Akangba Transmission Substation in Lagos.’’
Going further, Mbah said the substation takes supply from 2 different 330kv transmission lines, with the second being the redundant line, adding that TCN would rearrange bulk electricity transmitted on that line route to the second 330kv line previously carrying 59mw.
She explained that TCN was successfully back-feeding the substations affected by the towers’ collapse, while engineers were patrolling the second 330kv transmission line which tripped as a result of the incident to ensure it had no fault before it is energised.
Mbah said, “Once it is energised, supply will be restored to all the substations affected by the incident from the second 330kv transmission line. Load carried by the burnt 330kv line will now be transferred to the second line.’’
She lamented that an incident such as this was a major setback to TCN’s efforts at implementing grid expansion and stability under its Electricity Grid Maintenance, Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme.
Mbah noted that the re-erection of 5 towers and restringing of the 330kv transmission line is a major project that costs a lot of money and will take a while to complete.
It would be recalled that a pipeline explosion in the early hours of Friday in Lagos at Isale Odo, LASU Road, in Alimosho Local Government Area of the state, which was caused by the collapse of a 330KV Line which occurred within the axis.
The collapsed high tension line from Egbin Power Plant, Ikorodu, supplies electricity to Ikeja West which falls under the operational network of Ikeja Electric.
