Darkness Hits Lagos as Fire Guts TCN’s Alagbon Transmission Sub-station

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Many parts of Lagos will experience darkness as a 66MVA 132/33kV power transformer at the Alagbon Transmission Sub-station in Ikoyi exploded and caught fire in the early hours of thrsday.

The facility, which belongs to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), is located in the franchise area of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).

The cause of the fire was unknown but THISDAY gathered that as the fire fighters battled to put out the inferno, residents of Ikoyi could see smoke fumes wafting into the air.

It was also learnt that the incident has plunged the whole of Lagos Island down to parts of Epe into darkness.
However, the spokesman of Eko Disco, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, has described the fire incident as a “minor one”, adding that his company and TCN were working to restore power to the affected areas “in a matter of few days”.

THISDAY gathered that the TCN had recently installed one 66MVA 132/33kV power transformer in the injection sub-station to increase the bulk load wheeling capacity of the station to 312MVA on 132kV voltage level.

Despite this recent upgrade, the sub-station still recorded a breakdown of some of its facilities last month, plunging Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Parkview Estate, Obalende, Idumagbo and other adjoining areas into darkness.
In a statement issued yesterday, Idemudia confirmed that a 66MVA power transformer belonging to TCN caught fire in the early hours of Thursday at the Alagbon 132/33kv transmission injection sub-station.

He added that the fire was quickly put out through the combined effort of firemen from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Union Bank, Federal Fire Service and Lagos State Fire Service.

He further disclosed that the fire incident would result in power interruption in parts of Ikoyi, Moloney, Keffi and other parts of central Lagos.

The EKEDC spokesman assured the company’s customers in the affected areas that there was no cause for alarm as measures had already been put in place to sustain power supply to affected areas through back-feeding from alternative power sources.

He said efforts were already ongoing by a combined team of engineers and technicians from both EKEDC and TCN to ensure that the Alagbon transmission injection sub-station was fully back in circuit within the shortest possible time.

Residents of some parts of Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Park View Estate, Obalende, Idumagbo and other adjoining areas, had experienced prolonged power outage last month as a result of the breakdown of some facilities at the injection sub-station, which is a major source of bulk power supply to EKEDC from TCN.

The fault at the sub-station had put EKEDC’s distribution injection sub-stations in Adetokunbo Ademola Way, Berkeley, Anifowose, Fowler and Idumagbo totally out of circuit.

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