The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) hereby state that it has restored bulk electricity supply to Funtua Transmission Substation, Kaduna State, after the fire incident which emanated from a faulty 33kV armored cable from KEDCO 33kV feeder burnt along the cable into adjoining TCN substation, gutting and damaging TCN’s Protection and Control panel of 7.5MVA, 132/33kV transformer in its substation.
In a statement signed by the GM (Public Affairs), TCN said that the incident took place at about 17:48hrs on Saturday 17th November, when a big explosion sound accompanied by a very thick smoke and blinding flame started on the upriser of Dandume 33kV feeder belonging to KEDCO in Funtua. The fire, the release noted, was attributed to earth fault resulting from the faulty 33kV armored cable in the adjoining KEDCO station.
Prior to the incident, TCN said that KEDCO 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 immediately 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 a normal power supply but may experience slight load-shedding until the 7.5MVA transformer is also restored.
According to the statement, this is not the first time a DisCo would be causing the loss of TCN’s installations, noting that the only way the massive investments 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 protective equipment, causing faults in their network to affect TCN’s installations. This, it stated causes a lot of damage to transmission substation equipment, including power transformers, setting the company back in its quest to rapidly expand the nation’s transmission grid.
Ndidi Mbah
GM (Public Affairs)
20/11/18
