TCN blames arcing for loss of supply on national grid

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has denied media reports that the country witnessed a grid collapse on Monday.

It, however, said the grid experienced arcing on the Benin-Egbin 330kV isolator which caused lines tripping and consequent loss of supply to some areas.

A statement by its general manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, yesterday, explained that “The lines tripping started earlier at about 2:47pm, yesterday, with a heavy system surge that led to the arcing of Benin-Egbin 330kV line isolator fingers at the Egbin Transmission Substation switchyard. 

“This resulted in a tripping at the Egbin Generating Station, which caused the loss of power supply to all the Egbin Transmission substations’ outgoing lines.

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“This led to an exponential increase in load on the Osogbo-Ihovbor 330kV line 1 with serious arcing of isolator terminals on the Osogbo-Ihovbor 330kV line 1.”

She stated that to ensure that the sequence of events did not affect the nation’s grid, the Osogbo-Ihovbor 330kV line was opened to temporarily cut off the flow of electricity on that line.

“At about 2:56pm, however, the Benin-Egbin 330kV line 1 circuit breaker also tripped at the Benin Transmission Substation end and this resulted in the loss of supply to Lagos axis, parts of the South West region, parts of the North Central and Abuja.

“Meanwhile, other areas, including the South Eastern region, North East, and other parts of North Central and South West, had full power supply.”

She stated that the line tripping was quickly rectified, enabling the grid controller to restore full bulk power supply through the transmission lines at about 6.10pm.