The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Thursday, announced that a number of its electricity assets had again been destroyed, leading to supply outages in parts of Rivers and Bayelsa states.
A statement in Abuja by the General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, Ndidi Mbah, stated that its engineers were battling to restore power to the affected areas, stressing that the towers were discovered after a failed trial reclosure that prompted a subsequent patrol.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria regrets to inform the public that four of its towers along the Owerri-Ahoada 132kV double circuit line have been vandalised, resulting in their collapse.
“The affected towers, T171 to T174, were compromised, which led to their collapse at approximately 6:23 pm on Tuesday, March 11. The towers were discovered after a failed trial reclosure that prompted a subsequent patrol,” the TCN stated.
According to the company, investigations confirmed that the towers’ collapse was a direct result of vandalism.
The incident, it said, has disrupted power supply to the Ahoda, Gbarain, and Yenagoa 132kV transmission substations, affecting some parts of Rivers State and the entire Bayelsa State.
The TCN added that a team of engineers, led by the General Manager of the Port Harcourt Region, Emmanuel Akpa, had visited the site to assess the extent of the damage.
“TCN is making frantic efforts to mobilise personnel and materials for the repair of the vandalized towers so that the bulk power supply can be restored to the affected states.
“We condemn this act of vandalism, which continues to undermine efforts made to put in place a robust transmission grid. We are again calling on host communities to join us in the urgent fight against the vandalism of power infrastructure,” it added.
Also, the TCN has said that to enhance grid stability and mitigate power system disturbances, it has inaugurated a network monitoring system development committee.
The committee’s primary objective, it said, is to design and implement an advanced monitoring system equipped with integrated data analysis and real-time operational awareness capabilities to ensure optimisation of generation and transmission resources in our grid operations.
At the committee’s inauguration, the Executive Director, Independent System Operations (ISO), Nafisat Ali, highlighted the importance of the initiative, noting that the System Operator is responsible for managing the entire power system network, which includes planning and monitoring operations.
However, she said the current manual operation poses challenges in terms of visibility and tracking the activities of various stakeholders, mentioning that the increasing complexity of the power system necessitated the development of a comprehensive network monitoring system.
The Committee Chairman, Ojo Oladeji, who is also the Assistant General Manager (Research) at ISO, noted that TCN’s in-house engineers had proficiently maintained the system with locally developed solutions.
He also mentioned that the committee intends to leverage the capabilities of Phase Measuring Units (PMU) along with existing Internet of Things (IoT) data to meet its goals.
The eight-member committee will employ domestic technologies, including IoT, to develop the network monitoring system, the TCN said.
This system will be operational prior to the completion of the ongoing work on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and will subsequently serve as a backup.
“The comprehensive deployment of IoT throughout the grid network, coupled with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools across generation, transmission, and distribution data processing, will significantly enhance the project’s success,” Mbah added.
Emmanuel Addeh
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