Michael James
Lagos — Normal bulk power transmission has been restored after Apo Transmission Substation was gutted by fire in the early hours of today.
One of the Apo Transmission Substation 45MVA 132/33kV power transformers feeding Abuja Electric Distribution Company’s AEDC 33kV feeders went up in flame at about 13:33hours today, Sunday April 28, 2019.
The fire was put off by the combined efforts of the Federal, Federal Capital Territory and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC fire service.
However, Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN says it is still early to determine if the burnt transformer can be
In the statement signed by the General Manager (Public Affairs), TCN said that the fire resulted from a direct fault from one of Abuja Disco’s 33kV feeders which had a history of incessant trippings, the 33kV lacked protection.
Meanwhile, TCN is an equally investigating possibility of transformer protection failure on its 45MVA power transformer. The 33kV feeder H13 circuit breaker and current transformer exploded while the 33kV outgoing transformer snapped causing the fire.
TCN, however, noted that the Apo Transmission Substation has N-I redundancy and as such, power supply to all the areas that take supply from the substation through AEDC will not be affected by the incident.
This is as a result of the maximum load taken by AEDC from the burnt 45MVA transformer was 26MW.
Meanwhile, maximum load AEDC takes from the old 100MVA in the substation is 56.5MW while the maximum load from the second 100MVA power transformer installed last year is 30.8MW. Both, however, can take at full capacity, a total of 160MW against the 86.5.
Presently, TCN it is transmitting normal supply through the 2x100MVA 330/132kV and the second 45MVA 132/33kv power transformers in the substation. The company has equally loaded the 26MW from the burnt transformer into the 100MVA MBH transformer at the substation and is adequately supplying AEDC without load reduction.
It is also working with the Abuja Electricity Distribution company to ensure that it now takes the load formally taken from the burnt transformer through the MBH 100MVA transformer.
The company apologised for inconveniences to electricity consumers in the affected areas and noted that the issue of protection equipment is one that must be taken very seriously so that the stability of the nation’s network is not compromised.
