The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has restored bulk electricity supply to Funtua Transmission Substation, Kaduna State, after a fire which emerged from a faulty 33kV armored cable from KEDCO 33kV feeder damaged the company’s Protection and Control panel.
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 caused by earth fault resulted from the faulty 33kV armoured cable in the adjoining KEDCO station.
Speaking on the incident, TCN GM, Ndidi Mbah in a statement on Thursday said that Prior to the Saturday’s fire outbreak, KEDCO had taken planned outage from Zaria 132/33kV Transmission Substation, which caused loss of supply to Funtua 132/33kV Transmission Substation as Funtua Substation takes supply from Zaria Substation.
She said, ”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, adding that their actions prevented the fire from escalating and doing greater damage to the substation.
Mbah also noted 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 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 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.
”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 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,” the statement added.
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