‘Substandard Transformers Imports Worsening Power Crisis’
The crisis in Nigeria’s power sector had been worsened by the high influx of substandard transformers, the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency said on Thursday.
According to NEMSA, the importation of fake transformers by dealers has started creating additional challenges in the already troubled power sector.
The agency’s Managing Director and Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation, Peter Ewesor, who said these at a press conference in Abuja, stressed that it had become vital to inform all stakeholders in the sector that the permissible transformers’ Vector Group specifications were outlined in the extant Nigerian Electricity Supply and Installation Standards.
Ewesor said, “In recent times, we have discovered a lot of unwholesome activities that are going on and so I am going to start by the recent enforcement notice we have issued on certain issues. First is on the type and quality of transformers that are by law permitted to be used in Nigeria which is fully embedded in the NESIS.
“These regulations made it mandatory and clear that for distribution transformers, these are transformers that are used in the distribution sub-sector, from 50KVA-2,500KVA; they must have a Vector Group, which is called DYN11. It has got a reason; it has got a purpose.”
He added, “For power transformers in the distribution subsector too, from 2,500KVA – 3,000KVA, the power transformers must be Dyn1. Before these regulations were made, a lot of analyses had been carried out because there is what we call a sequence of phasing between generation, transmission and distribution.
“But we found out recently that there are a lot of transformers that have come into the country which actually are not meeting that requirement and standard. Basically those transformers cause a lot of hazard in the industry.”
The NEMSA boss explained, “Some of these transformers generate what we call harmonics that can heat-up electrical materials and equipment in houses; some of them have internal fault and internal problem which generate heat within the transformers that can make such transformer to explode (which can cause hazard).
“Also, some of them are actually special purpose transformers; they are designed to be used in a special way in some installations. But we found out these have been coming into the country and they are creating a lot of challenges.”
Ewesor further announced the total ban on the use of 33KV primary feeder lines conveying power from transmission substation to 33/11KV injection substation for point load nationwide.
