JUST-IN: Blackout Hits Northern Nigeria As Faulty Transformer Trips Off Power Supply

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reported a significant power outage affecting the North-East, North-West, and parts of North-Central due to a fault in its 330kV Ugwaji–Apir transmission lines.

The power company said the incident began around 4:53am on Monday when the Ugwuaji–Makurdi Line 2 tripped, due to a fault leading to a total loss of 468 MW by 4:58am, resulting in a forced power outage affecting the North-East, North-West and parts of North-Central regions.

This was despite efforts from two teams dispatched for fault tracing, including challenging terrain navigation, the cause remains undetermined, a statement signed by the company’s general manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, stated.

The TCN said it has, however, restored supply to the 132kV line but the 330kV lines were still down, impacting power distribution in the northern Nigeria. TCN apologised for the inconvenience, adding that was working diligently to resolve the issue.

“At approximately 4:53am, the Ugwuaji–Markurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped and 243 MW on that line was transferred to Line 1 on the same route. At 4:58am, Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW. By around 5:15am and 5:17am Line 1 and Line 2 were tried, but they all tripped immediately on the same relay indication.

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“Following the tripping incidents yesterday, two teams of linesmen were dispatched. One from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and another from the Enugu transmission to expedite fault tracing along the 215 km route, which includes 245 transmission towers.

“Throughout yesterday, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating challenging terrains in search of the fault, reaching as far as the River Benue. They were unable to locate the cause of the tripping and have continued in the fault tracing early this morning,” it stated.

Meanwhile, the TCN said the lines patrol team from Enugu Region of TCN were unable to commence lines patrol on Monday due to the illegal ‘sit-at-home’ directive in the South-East for October 21 and 22, 2024.

“This hindered not only the patrol team but also made it difficult to refuel patrol vehicles for the long distance line trace. Arrangements were, however, made for security operatives to guide the team, who have commenced fault tracing this morning.

“Currently, TCN has restored supply to the 132kV transmission line from New Haven to Apir, but the 330kV lines remain out of service, impacting power supply in the Northern region of the country.

“Sadly, the TCN Shiroro-Mando transmission line is also down due to security reasons, causing power outage in the North.

“TCN is making every effort to trace the cause of the outage to enable our engineers effect repairs and restore bulk power supply through both lines.

“We sincerely apologise to the government and electricity consumers in all the affected states and acknowledge that our patrol teams would have continued their search into the night yesterday, if not for the challenging terrain, which includes swamps and rivers, as well as insecure areas in the forest.

“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 TCN spokesperson added.