Oscarline Onwuemenyi
28 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) on Tuesday denied the claim by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that it was responsible for power outage last week in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
In a statement by its head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Oyebode Fadipe, the distribution company said it never dropped any load in its Lokoja network or any part of its operational area in Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states.
TCN had on Monday attributed the power outage in Lokoja last weekend to the rains which it said caused a sharp drop in load by distribution companies, leading to creation of extremely high voltage in the grid.
According to TCN, the action resulted in the shattering of the lightening arrester in the 150MVA power transformer in the Lokoja Transmission substation.
In a statement signed by the General Manager (Public Affairs), Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, TCN explained that lightening arresters are one of the items that normally prevent high voltage in the transformer. It said because the voltage was extremely high, it shattered the lightening arrester of the 150MVA power transformer.
But AEDC, Tuesday, said the claim was not correct.
“We wish to state categorically that this allegation by the TCN is not only untrue and unfounded, but also unfortunate, especially coming at a time when all stakeholders in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) are joining hands to ensure sustainable improvement in power supply across the country,” the statement said.
“For the records, AEDC hereby states that it neither drops load in its Lokoja network nor any other part of its operational area, which comprises the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states, stressing that it has in fact been yearning for more electricity allocation to enable it meet the demands of its customers.”
Mr. Fadipe explained that contrary to the claim by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the recent outage in Lokoja and environs which lingered for about 72 hours, resulted from a maintenance work, which was scheduled to start and end on Friday, February 23, but had to be extended to the evening of Monday, February 26.
“The TCN had duly notified our Area Office in Lokoja that it was carrying out a maintenance work on its 150MVA transformer at the 330/132 transmission station in Lokoja on Friday, February 23, 2018, but we later got to know that the maintenance had been extended beyond that day, and by Sunday, February 25, 2018, it was all too obvious again that TCN could not conclude its upkeep on the transformer, forcing yet another extension to Monday, February 26, 2018.
“It is rather unfortunate that the TCN will also turn round to blame the lingering outage in Lokoja on AEDC, when the actual reason for the outage was quite obvious.”
AEDC said the TCN’s statement implied insufficient resilience in the transmission system, especially when the small load of Lokoja is considered relative to the entire load on the transmission network, adding, “assuming the TCN’s allegation was correct, the implication is that every time a load was dropped due to faults and other causes a TCN equipment will be blown up because of the high voltage”.
It added that, “Root cause analysis approach backed by system simulations is what should be used to inform causes of failures on the system”.
While reiterating its concern about the TCN’s allegation, the AEDC appealed to stakeholders in the NESI against buck passing, saying that “we should all work towards building on the successes that have been recorded so far in the power sector, in order to win greater public confidence in our capacity to turnaround the sector.”
