Minister of Power, TCN MD assure restoration of electricity in Northern region

The duo gave assurance that in the next five days, Saturday 3rd November 2024, to be specific, light will be restored to the region.

Speaking at a press briefing organized by TCN to keep Nigerians abreast with what it’s doing to ensure the black out in the northern region is brought to an end, Chief Adelabu said an alternative route is now being explored to provide electricity to the Northern  region.

On the security challenges which have hindered TCN engineers from working on the vandalized lines, the Minister disclosed that the Service Chiefs have provided security measures to ensure that the Shiroro–Kaduna transmission lines 1 and 2 are restored in a matter of days.

“So, I can assure you that before the end of this week, light will be restored to the north. We are exploring alternative routes, we are hoping that in a matter of days, light will be restored to the north”, he said.

As will explore an alternative route, “we’ll still continue to work on the vandalised lines. This must have actually affected a number of parts, not just lines. Amongst the first parts, we know that a lot of single work needs to be carried out before the direct power can show that they are standing properly before the streaming of the light to the south. So, in a matter of two or three days, more than 70 to 80 per cent of the northern part, which is affected, will have light. That is the assurance that we give you”.

He revealed that there’s a memo before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the establishment of a super grid, saying “given the wweaknesses of the existing grid, we need a back up grid that will serve as a failover option.

“If anything happens to the existing grid, there will be a backup option, an alternative route. It’s a problem when there are no alternatives, but once you have an alternative, we just redirect its route”.

According to him, if the country has a super grid which is what’s existing in advanced countries, it will reduce over reliance on the existing single national grid.

While acknowledging that it cost a lot of money and time to build a super grid, the Minister called for patience and understanding among Nigerians following the incessant grid disturbance in recent times.

Earlier, the Managing Director/CEO of TCN, Engr. Sule Abdulaziz said the Shiroro – Mando 330kv line 1 tripped on 9th September 2024, patrol of the safe area was done, but the faulty section could not be reached due to insecurity.

Engr. Abdulaziz stated that efforts were made by using local vigilante who confirmed snap conductor on a tower but they could not identify the tower number.

“Arrangements were made to use the local group to escort our engineers in the night to effect repairs in order to evade the bandits in the location. Unfortunately, we did not succeed because the bandits got wind of our intentions and laid siege to the area.

“TCN solicited the support of the Nigeria Air force, Kaduna for unmanned aerial surveillance on 17th October 2024 and the impacted towers were identified. They were four (4) in number with 3 totally collapsed and 1 number twisted”.

Continuing, he said, “In another related development, vandalism of Ugwuaji – Apir 330kV lines were reported on 21st October, 2024 causing tripping of the lines.

“Trial reclosure failed and patrol revealed damaged conductors due to vandalism. This compounded the transmission of bulk power to the Northern corridor as these lines serve as link between Northern and Southern area. This outage severely affected the wheeling capacity of TCN.

The TCN boss said the area affected has been secured with help of Nigerian Army and concerted effort is ongoing on one of the lines for restoration.

According to him, the restoration one of these lines will allow TCN to wheel about 400MW of power in that corridor, adding that TCN is intensifying efforts to repair and restore the second line on Ugwuaji – Apir on or by Sunday 3rd November, 2024.

“This will avail TCN to wheel substantial quantum of power through Apir to Jos to Kaduna to Kano. Conclusively, TCN is working with ONSA for security of personnel and site on Shiroro – Mando 330kV SC lines for commencement of rehabilitation of impacted towers in this axis”, he said.