The Nigerian government said on Tuesday that power restoration efforts were continuing in the northern region of the country, with power expected to be fully restored by the end of the week.
Minister of Electricity, Adebayo Adelabu disclosed this while speaking at a press conference organized by Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
“So, I can assure you that before the end of this week, lights will be restored in the North. We are looking for alternative routes, we are hopeful that lights will be restored in the North within a few days,” Mr Adelabu said.
Last week, TCN said its Shiroro-Mando transmission line was damaged due to vandalism, causing power outages in several northern states.
Speaking on Tuesday, the minister said the government will continue to work on the lines of sabotage.
“We will still continue to work on the damaged lines. This may have actually affected many parts, not just the lines. From the first parts, we know there's a lot of solo work that needs to be done before they can properly stand up to the direct power shows streaming southward. So, in two or three days, more than 70 to 80 percent of the northern part, which is affected, will have lights. That's the assurance we give you,” he said.
“This is not the first time that we will have problems on that line. We had vandalized there earlier too but no one paid attention to it because we rectified it within a few days. But this time it was more serious and repairs were delayed due to safety hazards.
He said that vandalism of transmission equipment in the North is not a strange thing.
“We are only appealing to our brothers to help secure these equipment because resources that could have been used for other projects are being diverted to repairing damaged infrastructure. We are working and hopefully the lights will be restored before the end of the week. “We are exploring alternative solutions while continuing to repair the damaged towers.”
vandalism
The minister said there is a bill before the National Assembly to introduce the death penalty for perpetrators of barbarity.
“We want strict punishment for these criminals. Also, we need to focus on stopping the sale of scrap metals in the country. They are the ones who encourage vandalism because they buy these things cheap from criminals.
In his remarks, TCN Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sule Abdulaziz, explained that the Shiroro-Mando 330kV line was tripped on September 19, noting that patrolling of the safe zone was carried out, but not to the faulted section. Could be reached. For insecurity.
“Efforts were made using local monitors who confirmed a snapped conductor at a tower but they could not identify the tower number. Arrangements were made to use a local group to accompany our engineers at night to carry out the repair work to avoid bandits at the location. Unfortunately, we did not succeed as the bandits became aware of our intentions and cordoned off the area,'' he said.
He said minimal supply was maintained in the north-west corridor through the second circuit until October 13, when the second line tripped and failed to survive on trial reclosure.
He further said that local vigilantes were deployed again to search the area, but they could reach only a part of the protected area.
Therefore, he said TCN requested the support of the Nigeria Air Force, Kaduna for unmanned aerial surveillance on October 17 and the affected towers were identified.
“Their number was four of which three were completely destroyed and a number twisted.”
Also read: Tinubu speaks on blackout in northern Nigeria
In another related development, he said that on October 21, vandalism was reported in the Ugwuji – APIR 330 KV lines, causing the lines to trip. The test recovery failed and the patrol revealed damaged conductors due to vandalism.
This, he said, complicated the transmission of large amounts of power in the northern corridor as these lines serve as links between the northern and southern regions.
“This outage severely impacted TCN's wheeling capacity. The affected area has been secured with the help of the Nigerian Army and a concerted effort is underway for restoration. The restoration of one of these lines would allow TCN to operate approximately 400 MW of power in that corridor. Additionally, TCN is intensifying efforts to repair and restore the second line at Ugwuji-Epir by Sunday 3 November.
“This will enable TCN to deliver adequate amount of power from Eper to Jos to Kaduna to Kano. “Conclusively, TCN is working with ONSA for personnel and site security on the Shiroro – Mando 330 kV SC lines to begin the rehabilitation of the affected towers in this axis,” he said.
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