Ikoyi in darkness as fire guts substation

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Alagbon injection substation in Ikoyi Lagos was yesterday gutted by fire following lightning.

The fire damaged a 66MVA transformer and plunged parts of Ikoyi and Lagos Island into darkness.

It was learnt that the incident occurred around 5am, during heavy rainfall.

The fire was put out by fire fighters.

It was gathered that there was a loud bang, following which the transformer caught fire and the electricity in Beckley, parts of Ikoyi, Keffi and central Lagos went out.

TCN Lagos Zonal General Manager Geoffrey Nwokoye said the fire occurred when the transformer’s light arrester was shattered by the thunderstorm.

Nwokoye said: “This morning, there was rainfall with a lot of lightning and one of our transformers at Alagbon substation caught fire. The 66MVA transformer caught fire as a result of the light arrester that was shattered due to the thundering light.

This light arrester is to absorb the over voltage, but the over voltage was too much as a result of the lightning, maybe it was too much for the light arrester.

“The lightning shattered it and then the conductor that was to transfer dropped on the transformer; it was the conductor that dropped on the transformer that caused the fire incident.

“The good thing is that in the spirit of m-1 redundancy of TCN, engendered by the present management, we have enough capacity to take care of the transformer that was burnt. We have another transformer with the capacity to take care of the burnt one. We are hereby assuring customers under this transformer that electricity supply will be restored within 12 hours; our team of engineers is working on it.”

General Manager in charge of Transmission, Godfery Nwasoke, the fire outbreak would not cause blackout in areas such as Osborne road, Ikoyi, Victoria island and its environs, contrary to speculations among people.

He said the TCN has 50 per cent of its capacity in the affected area, and that the issue only affected a smaller portion of the area.

He said the transformer that was affected was serving one of the feeders, which is serving about i5 megawatts of electricity (Mw).

He said TCN has transferred the load from the affected transformer to another transformer in the area, in order to prevent it from having a major impact on the residents of the area.

Posted by : Onyekwelu Charles