Several parts of northern Nigeria have been plunged into darkness following the tripping of the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s (TCN) 330kV Ugwaji–Apir Double Circuit transmission lines. The outage, which occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, affected communities in the North-east, North-west, and parts of North-central Nigeria.
In a statement released by the TCN, its General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, explained the cause of the outage, noting that it resulted from a fault in the transmission lines.
“At approximately 4:53 am, the Ugwuaji–Markurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped, transferring 243 MW of load to Line 1. Just five minutes later, Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total power loss of 468 MW,” Mbah stated. “Attempts to restore both lines around 5:15 am were unsuccessful, as they tripped immediately again.”
Teams of linesmen from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and Enugu Transmission have been dispatched to trace the fault along the 215-kilometer route, which spans 245 transmission towers. Despite patrolling difficult terrain up to the River Benue, the cause of the tripping remains undetected.
Mbah noted that the fault-tracing efforts in the Enugu region were delayed due to the sit-at-home directive in the South-East on October 21 and 22, which impacted not only the patrol teams but also the refueling of patrol vehicles.
“Security arrangements have been made, and our teams are now on-site tracing the fault,” she added.
Though TCN has restored power to the 132kV transmission line from New Haven to Apir, the 330kV lines remain out of service, significantly affecting power supply in the northern region. Mbah also disclosed that the Shiroro-Mando transmission line is down due to security issues, further exacerbating the power outage.
The TCN assured affected communities that all efforts are being made to restore power as quickly as possible.
