Kehinde Fajobi
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced a major power outage affecting the North-East, North-West, and parts of North-Central due to a fault in its 330kV Ugwuaji–Apir transmission lines.
The outage, which began around 4:53 a.m. on Monday, saw the Ugwuaji–Makurdi Line 2 trip due to an undetermined fault, causing a total loss of 468 MW by 4:58 a.m., according to a statement signed by Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager of Public Affairs, on Tuesday.
“At approximately 4:53 a.m., the Ugwuaji–Makurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped, and 243 MW on that line was transferred to Line 1 on the same route. By 4:58 a.m., Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW,” the statement read.
“Efforts to restore the lines were made around 5:15 a.m. and 5:17 a.m., but both tripped immediately.”
Despite deploying two teams for fault tracing, one from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and another from the Enugu region, the exact cause of the outage remains unclear.
“Throughout yesterday, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating challenging terrains, including swamps and rivers, but were unable to locate the cause of the tripping,” the statement explained.
However, progress has been made in restoring the 132kV line, but the 330kV lines are still out of service, impacting power distribution in the affected regions.
TCN also acknowledged the challenges posed by the illegal ‘sit-at-home’ directive in the South-East on October 21 and 22, which delayed the start of fault tracing from the Enugu team.
Security operatives have since been dispatched to guide the team as they continue the fault tracing process.
The company added that the Shiroro-Mando transmission line remains down due to security concerns, exacerbating the power outage in the North. TCN has assured the public that they are working diligently to trace and resolve the issue.
“We sincerely apologise to the government and electricity consumers in all the affected states,” Mbah said, stressing that difficult terrain and security challenges had hampered their fault-tracing efforts.
“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.”
The power company reaffirmed its commitment to restoring bulk power supply as quickly as possible.