Egbin Power Plc on Saturday stated that its power plant at Egbin, Ikorodu, Lagos State, had partially resumed operations, after a recent fire incident, which led to the shutting down of about 630 megawatts.
The company, which has an installed generating capacity of 1,320mw and contributes 16 per cent of Nigeria’s entire generation, said this in a statement, stressing that it had partially restored the generation of 220mw of the lost power.
During the week, power generation had dropped by 630mw after a fire outbreak at the plant led to the attendant shutdown of generation by the company, coupled with the load reduction mechanism adopted by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to prevent system collapse.
The incident occurred at its power plant on Wednesday at about 4.20 pm, leading to a blackout in Lagos State, with the company saying that the fire outbreak was later successfully contained by a team of firefighters.
But in an update, the company stressed that its technical team was working to ensure that the entire system was fully back on stream.
“The management of Egbin Power Plc. wishes to inform the public and its stakeholders that plant operations have resumed following the recent fire incident at the power plant which was immediately contained.
“Unit (ST05) was put back in service and synchronised to the national grid at 19:57 hours on 4th February and is back on stream with a capacity of 220mw.
“The technical team at the plant is working tirelessly to ensure that 660mw is added to the grid before the weekend runs out,” it noted
According to the power company, it would continue to work with the regulatory authorities and other stakeholders to achieve full restoration in line with global health, safety, and environmental standards.
“While thanking our employees, the public, our partners and stakeholders for their unwavering support, cooperation and understanding, we use this medium to reiterate our commitment to bringing energy to life responsibly through safe, innovative and sustainable power generation,” it said.
Earlier, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) and Ikeja Electric (IE) Plc had attributed the outage being experienced by customers under their networks to a drop in power generation.
In a separate statement issued on its social media page yesterday, regarding the state of power supply to its customers, EKEDC said the reduction in supply was due to the drop in power generation from an average of 3,700MW to 2,000MW per hour.
The Disco said this was caused by gas limitations arising from vandalism, and more recently an issue affecting the TCN line from the Egbin Power Plant.
In the same vein, Ikeja Electric said a power outage was being experienced in certain parts of its network due to load shedding by TCN as a result of the drop in power generation.
The Disco said the affected areas were: Iju, Abule Odu, Egbeda, Oregun, Anifowoshe, Ago, Okota, Oke Afa, Ajao, Amuwo, Ikosi, Mende, Ogudu, Bariga, Oworo, Gbagada and Ilupeju.
Meanwhile, TCN said it had restored 180mw out of the 630MW shutdown in the Egbin power station.
It noted that the ongoing load shedding in the Lagos axis was a result of the fire incident, which occurred at Egbin Power Station on Wednesday.
TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, who made this known in a statement, recalled that the fire necessitated the shutdown of all the power generating units at the power plant.
She explained that with the shutdown of the units, a total of 630mw was removed from the grid.
She noted that the ongoing load shedding in the Lagos axis is as a result of the fire incident which occurred in Egbin power station on Wednesday.
“This necessitated the shutdown of all the power generating units in the power station. With the shutdown of the units, a total of 630mw was removed from the grid.
“The removal of 630mw from the grid at the same time meant that TCN had to strive to ensure that it achieved generation load balance to maintain the stability of the grid.
“This it did by reducing bulk electricity to Lagos, to avoid overloading the 330kV lines within the state, while the third unit at the Shiroro Station was tied. These were necessary to avoid the collapse of the nation’s grid,” it pointed out.
The TCN noted that it would continue the evacuation of generated power from the Egbin power station as soon as the station resumes power generation.
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja and Peter Uzoho in Lagos
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