TCN announces six-hour blackout in parts of Abuja, Niger over substation maintenance
TCN announces six-hour blackout in parts of Abuja, Niger over substation maintenance
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says scheduled maintenance at its Katampe 1 transmission substation will disrupt electricity supply to parts of Abuja and Niger state for six hours on Thursday.
In a notice issued on Wednesday, the company said the maintenance would prevent the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) from receiving electricity for onward supply to customers in the affected areas between 10 am and 4 pm.
The TCN said its maintenance crew would work on the bay switchgears and associated equipment of the Katampe-Gwarimpa 132kV line II at the 132/33kV Katampe 1 transmission substation.
The company listed Kubwa, FO1, Gbazango, Byazin, Byazin Across, Dutse Alhaji, Dutse Makaranta, Ushafa, and Bwari among the affected areas.
Other locations include parts of Suleja, Kaduna Road, Sabon Wuse, Dikko, Madalla, Zuba, Dakwa, Tugan Maji, and their environs.
On August 28, the TCN said it secured more than $1.4 billion in loans and grants from multilateral development partners to expand the national electricity grid.
Ajiboye Oluwagbenga, executive director of transmission service provider at TCN, said the company is rehabilitating ageing assets and expanding the transmission network through internally funded projects and multilateral development financing.
“Through a blend of internally funded initiatives and over $1.4 billion in multilateral development financing, TCN is systematically rehabilitating aging assets and expanding the transmission network. A major pillar of our infrastructure development drive has been deploying 89 power transformers across the network,” he said.
Oluwagbenga said the deployment had added more than 8,500 megavolt-amperes (MVA) of new transformation capacity to the transmission network, improving bulk power delivery to distribution companies nationwide.
“With the addition of 300 MVA transformer units at strategic locations, including Katampe, Lekki, Ikeja West and Akangba, TCN is actively addressing critical load constraints,” he said.
The TCN had recently commissioned four transmission substations in Kano, adding 544 megawatts (MW) of wheeling capacity to the state and the national grid.
The projects, located in Walalambe, Kumbotso, Dakata and Dan-Agundi, were delivered in partnership with the Kano State government, according to a statement from the federal ministry of power published by TheCable on October 24.
The ministry said the substations were expected to strengthen bulk electricity supply to industrial, commercial and residential areas in Kano, relieve overloaded substations and create room to meet previously suppressed demand.
