TCN restores power transmission at Apo sub-station

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), says it has restored normal bulk transmission of electricity to its Apo transmission sub-station after a fire outbreak on one of its 45MVA 132/33kV power transformers on Sunday.

The burnt 45MVA 132/33kv power transformer feeds electricity to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) 33kV feeders.

TCN’s General Manager Public Affairs, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, in a statement on Monday, said the fire was put off by the combined efforts of the federal, FCT and NNPC fire service.

She, however, said it was still early for TCN to determine if the burnt transformer can be salvaged.

Mbah said that the fire resulted from a direct fault from one of AEDC’s 33kV feeders which had a history of incessant tripping, noting that the 33kV feeder lacked protection.

She said TCN was equally investigating the possibility of transformer protection failure on its 45MVA power transformer, adding that “the 33kV feeder H13 circuit breaker and current transformer exploded while the 33kV outgoing transformer snapped, causing the fire.’’

The TCN spokesoman, however, said the Apo transmission sub-station had N-I redundancy and as such, power supply to all the areas that take supply from the sub-station through AEDC would not be affected by the incident.

“This is because the maximum load taken by the AEDC from the burnt 45MVA transformer was 26MW, meanwhile maximum load the AEDC takes from the old 100MVA in the sub-station is 56.5MW.

“But, 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 as against the 86.5MW,’’ she concluded.