Northern states of Plateau and Gombe have been thrown into darkness following the pulling down of four transmission towers along Jos – Gombe 330KV line.
A statement by the Transmission Company of Nigeria explained that when the 330kV transmission line tripped, its operators attempted to restore it to service but it tripped again, prompting the dispatch of TCN lines men to trace the line in order to detect and rectify the fault.
“While fault tracing, TCN’s engineering crew discovered that towers 288, 289 , 290, and 291 were vandalised and that some tower members were carted away. Also, the towers had equally collapsed as a result of the incident,” the statement said.
“Presently, bulk power supply to Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo Substations have been disrupted, affecting bulk power supply to parts of Yola and Jos Electricity Distribution Companies’ franchise areas”.
TCN disclosed that to mitigate the effect of the incident on electricity consumers affected by the incident, it was trying to first backfeed Gombe through its 132kV transmission line from Bauchi and subsequently Ashaka, Potiskum, Damaturu, and Billiri/ Savannah.
Data provided by the Independent System Operator on grid generation showed that while the national power grid remained stable it dropped slightly to 3,722 Megawatts as at 3pm on Monday compared to 4,065MW recorded the previous day.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has granted approval to the Ekiti State government to take over the electricity market within the state.
The commission in a statement said it has issued an order to transfer regulatory oversight of the electricity market in Ekiti State from the Commission to the Ekiti State Electricity Regulatory Bureau (EERB).
With the new order, NERC directed Benin Electricity Distribution Company and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company to set up subsidiaries in Ekiti State to manage their affairs within the state.
The commission said it retains the role as central regulator with regulatory oversight on the inter-state/international generation, transmission, supply, trading and system operations.
