Gas Unavailability Hinders 4,024.5MW As TCN Repairs Transformers
The Transmission Company of Nigeria on Tuesday announced that it had repaired one of its 60MVA 132/33kV power transformers in its Sokoto Transmission Substation, as latest industry figures showed that unavailability of gas stalled the generation of 4,024.5 megawatts of electricity.
TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said the transformer developed fault on March 18, 2020 due to frequent circulation of 33kV feeder fault currents within the transformer, adding that oil filtration would commence on March 25, 2020.
“Meanwhile, work is also ongoing on one of the 30MVA 132/33kV power transformers in the substation which was shut down by the TCN to take care of transformer oil degradation and leakage,” she stated.
She noted that consequently, the TCN had been unable to supply bulk electricity from the transformers to Kaduna distribution company for onward supply to its customers in and around Sokoto State who take supply from the faulty transformers in the Sokoto substation.
“As soon as the oil filtration is completed, the 60MVA power transformer would be energised. Work is ongoing to seal urgently the oil leakage problem on the 30MVA transformer,” Mbah said.
She expressed the regret of TCN to the government and electricity customers in Sokoto State as the firm pledged to expedite ongoing works on the transformers to ensure that normal bulk supply was restored to the Sokoto substation.
Meanwhile, latest industry figures from the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice President, stated that on March 22, 2020, the average energy that was sent out to power users nationwide was 4,127 megawatts-hour/hour.
This was up by 58.22MW from the previous day’s figure, while 4,024.5MW was not generated due to the unavailability of gas on the day under review.
The APT stated that zero megawatt was not generated due to unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 497.4MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure.
It said zero megawatt was recorded as loss due to water management, as the sector lost an estimated N2.17bn on March 22 due to constraints from insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.
