Power line collapse causes darkness in major Lagos City
…As TCN provides reason for explosions
A high tension power line from Egbin hydro power station has collapsed throwing many parts of Lagos into darkness.
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has also issued a safety alert to residents of Igando, Idimu Axis to observe serious safety precautions due to the collapse of high tension poles that emanated from Eghin Hydro power station.
The line came in from Ikorodu across Ikeja and other areas.
Fire service have been mobilised to provide eagle in case of fire outbreak
Power Service agencies especially Ikeja Electric Distribution Company and other are trying to isolate the 330 Line for safety reasons.
The 330 line from Egbin Power Plant, Ikorodu supplies electricity to Ikeja West.
The incident also caused pipeline explosion.
The electric cable collapse led to electric sparks all over the area and the sparks got to the spilled content of PMS around the area which led to the pipeline gutting fire and subsequent explosion.
The pipeline corridor has been known to have spillage often due to activities of vandals.
According to NEMA, fire still is raging but the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Limited (NNPC) security and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are on ground to avert any breakdown of law and order.
The pipeline fire explosion does not pose any threat to human and public lives.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has revealed that Friday’s inferno at Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, that led to the collapse of five 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.
Mrs 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, Mba 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.
She 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.”
Mbah lamented that an incident such as this is a major setback to TCN’s efforts at implementing grid expansion and stability under its Electricity Grid Maintenance, Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme.
She 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.
