By Isamil Adebayo
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State is on fire.
The immediate cause of the fire is not known yet. Some residents of the area where TCN is located behind mechanic village in Birnin Kebbi metropolis said they only heard a loud bang followed by thick fire and smoke from a section of the electric installations at about 12: 32 am .
As at 1m when this report was filed, the fire was still raging and extending to other facilities around.
Fire fighters were yet to arrive at the scene.
The development comes hours after fire outbreak on the Kainji/Jebba 330 kilovolt (kV) line triggered the collapse of the national grid and resulting in nationwide power outage.
Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, had said the fire led to about 356.63MW generation loss.
“At 00:35Hrs this morning, Fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW,” he said.
“Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07Hrs to zero. At 00:41Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41Hz then resulted in system collapse of the grid,” he posted on Twitter.
