By Chris Ochayi

THE Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has restored bulk electricity supply to Funtua Transmission Substation, Katsina State, after a fire incident.

The fire, which emanated from a faulty 33kV armored cable from KEDCO 33kV feeder burnt along the cable into adjoining TCN substation, damaging TCN’s Protection and Control panel of 7.5MVA, 132/33kV transformer in its substation.

The General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Mrs. Ndidi Mba, who disclosed this in a statement, said that the incident took place at about 17:48hrs on Saturday 17th November, when an explosion sound accompanied by a thick smoke and blinding flame started on the upriser of Dandume 33kV feeder belonging to KEDCO in Funtua.

The fire, she noted, was attributed to earth fault resulting from the faulty 33kV armored cable in the adjoining KEDCO station.

electricity

“Prior to the incident, TCN said that it had taken planned outage from Zaria132/33kV Transmission Substation, this caused loss of supply to Funtua 132/33kV Transmission Substation as Funtua Substation takes supply from Zaria Substation.

“At 1724hrs, 33kV Dandume feeder Circuit Breaker was closed and supply restored to the 30MVA and 7.5MVA, 132/33kV Transformers in Funtua from Zaria Transmission Substation, after the successful completion of the job, before the fire incident.

“TCN commended efforts of the Katsina State Fire Service, Funtua, for their prompt response to the site of the incident, saying that they prevented the fire from escalating and doing greater damage to the substation.

Noting that after the fire was put off, a combined team of TCN engineers from its Gusau and Mando Work Centres commenced work to effect repairs and restore supply to Funtua Transmission Substation.

“The 30MVA transformer in Funtua Substation has been restored to service, while the 7.5MVA capacity transformer is yet to be restored. Funtua currently has normal power supply but may experience slight loadshedding until the 7.5MVA transformer is also restored.

“This is not the first time a DISCO would be causing the loss of TCN’s installations, noting that the only way the investment TCN is making in the nation’s transmission grid would be felt by electricity consumers nationwide would be if the DISCOs start making appropriate and extensive investments in their distribution networks.

The statement further noted that it is a common but destructive practice by DISCOs to make direct connections from TCN’s 33kV lines, without injection substations in place and sometimes their injection substations and lines do not have protection equipment, causing faults in their network to affect TCN’s installations.