Speaking in Abuja while responding to questions from members of the Senate committee on power, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, APGA, Abia South, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who disclosed that power will get there in the next seventy- two hours, said that as a temporary measure, power would be supplied through the Ugwuaji-Makurdi transmission line, which could cover approximately 80% of affected states.
He said: “Power will be restored to the North in two to three days. We will use the Ugwuaji-Makurdi transmission line for temporary purposes.”
Adelabu noted that efforts were underway to access the damaged grid with the assistance of security agencies.
“Once fully accessible, the damaged lines will be repaired, allowing for a complete restoration of power to the affected areas.
“We are working with security agencies to access the grid currently occupied by vandals. I assure you that within the next 14 days, the repairs will be completed, and power will be fully restored to the north,’’ he assured.
Recall that on October 22, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, reported an outage in the North-East, North-West, and parts of North-Central, after the 330-kilovolt (kV) Ugwaji-Apir double circuit transmission lines 1 and 2 tripped.
According to Nafisatu Ali, Executive Director of the Independent System Operator, the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line supplying power to the north was vandalized by insurgents.
In response, President Bola Tinubu directed the military to provide security for workers repairing the power lines.
Meanwhile, the minister has declared that attacks on power transmission towers, especially in the northern parts of the country, were acts of terrorism that would be dealt with by security forces.
Chief Adebayo who spoke at a briefing organized by the Transmission Company of Nigeria in Abuja explained while attacks on the transmission lines were not new, the current spate that has left 15 states in the north without grid power supply were done by terrorists.
He however assured consumers in the Northern parts of the country that limited supply would be restored by this weekend with repair works on the vandalized Shiroro-Mando line expected to be completed in about six weeks.
Chief Adebayo who spoke at a briefing organized by the Transmission Company of Nigeria in Abuja explained that the government was working hard to restore power supply to the north through the eastern corridor.
According to him, this effort would make at least 400 megawatts of power available by the weekend.
“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 stated.
He assured that “We (will) still continue to work on the vandalised lines. This must have 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.
“This is not the first time we will be having issues in that line. We’ve had vandalism there before but nobody noticed it because we fixed it within days. But this time it was more severe and the repairs were delayed because of security threats.”
Chief Adebayo added: “We’re only appealing to our brothers to help us protect this equipment because the resources that could have been used for other projects are being channelled into repairing the vandalised infrastructure. We’re working and hopefully, the light will be restored before the end of the week. We’re exploring alternative solutions while we continue to work to fix the vandalised towers,” he added.
The minister noted that there is a bill before the National Assembly for capital punishment for perpetrators of vandalism.
“We want stiffer punishment for these criminals. Also, we need to look at stopping the sale of scrap metals in the country. They are those who encourage vandalism because they buy these things from criminals cheaply.”
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director/CEO, TCN, Engr. Abdulaziz Sule noted that TCN engineers were working hard to get supply back to the north.
While lamenting the tough environment in which the TCN workers had to operate in, he stated that the areas where the towers were felled were very dangerous.
“Shiroro – Mando 330kv line 1 tripped on 9th September 2024, a patrol of the safe area was done, but the faulty section could not be reached due to insecurity. Efforts were made by using local vigilantes who confirmed snap conductors 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 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.
“Minimum supply was maintained to the North-West corridor through the second circuit until 13th October, 2024 when the second line tripped and failed to stay on trial reclosure. Local vigilantes were again engaged to comb the area but could only access part of the safe area. Hence, 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 collapsed and 1 number twisted.”
“In another related development, vandalism of Ugwuaji – Apir 330kV lines was 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 area affected has been secured with help of the Nigerian Army and concerted effort is ongoing on one of the lines for restoration. Restoration of one of these lines will allow TCN to wheel about 400MW of power in that corridor. Also, 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 a substantial quantum of power through Apir to Jos to Kaduna to Kano.
“Conclusively, TCN is working with ONSA for the security of personnel and site on Shiroro – Mando 330kV SC lines for commencement of rehabilitation of impacted towers in this axis”, he explained.
