The cause of the inferno that led to the collapse of five high tension towers in Lagos on Friday has been traced to petroleum pipeline vandals.
This was made known on Saturday by TCN’s spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, who stressed that the inferno burnt a large portion of the electricity conductor.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Ndidi explained that the inferno triggered a resistant pull on the high-tension towers along the line route, causing five of them to collapse.
She said, “The incident which is estimated to have occurred at about 12:29am on Friday, burnt a wide portion of the 330kv transmission line which wheels 145mw of bulk power to the Akangba Sub-station.
“The transmission towers affected are the two closest to the site of the inferno and three across the Lagos canal.
“As a result of the incident, there is a major reduction of bulk power wheeled to TCN’s 330/132/33kV Akangba Transmission Sub-station in Lagos.
“The sub-station takes supply from two different 330kv transmission lines, with the second being the redundant line.
“TCN would rearrange bulk electricity transmitted on that line route to the second 330kv line previously carrying 59mw.
“TCN was successfully back-feeding the sub-stations affected by the towers’ collapse, while engineers were patrolling the second 330kv transmission line which tripped as a result of the incident.
“Once it is energised, supply will be restored to all the sub-stations affected by the incident from the second 330kv transmission line.
“Load carried by the burnt 330kv line will now be transferred to the second line.”
She described the incident as a major setback to TCN’s efforts at implementing grid expansion and stability under its Electricity Grid Maintenance, Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme.
The spokesperson explained that re-erection of five towers and restringing of the 330kv transmission line was a major project that costs a lot of money and will take a while to complete.
She added that TCN was appealing to Nigerians to desist from activities such as fuel theft and other destructive tendencies as they all have very far-reaching negative effects on the nation.
She said, “The issue of protecting national assets is imperative and must be taken seriously so that the stability of the nation’s network and the development of the nation are not compromised.’’
The inferno occurred at a pipeline on Isheri Olofin, off Igando-LASU Expressway, and caused massive damage to the 330KV Ikeja-West Akangba Transmission Line 1.
