BLACKOUTS IN THE NORTH: TCN TO THE RESCUE.

ADMIN.

The blackout experienced in some parts of the North West region has been attributed to the unpatriotic acts of unscrupulous individuals who are bent on sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria for their own selfish ends and not as a result of negligence
Stories by our reporters Usman Muhammed, Ibrahim Jubril and Zainab Aliu in Kaduna and Kano.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) have announced that two towers along its 330kv Shiroro-Kaduna transmission lines one and two have been vandalized, damaging parts of both transmission lines. According to reports from the Shiroro Regional office of TCN, the 330kv transmission line one tripped first, followed shortly by the second, as efforts were still ongoing to reclose the first line, prompting the urgent mobilization of local vigilantes to patrol the lines. This led to the discovery of two damaged towers, towers T133 and tower T136 with their cables badly damaged at several points. As a result, the TCN management have moved swiftly to deploy the newly procured “emergency restoration system” to the site, pending the reconstruction of the damaged towers; the TCN management have also conducted aerial survey in collaboration with security agencies given the areas vulnerability to banditry, which poses a significant threat to both TCN installations and personnel. Meanwhile, as observed, TCN engineers have implemented a temporal measure to supply bulk power to the Kaduna and kano regions via the 330kv Kaduna-Jos transmission lines. The vandalized Shiroro-Kaduna lines 1&2 are vital lines through which bulk power is transmitted to parts of the North West Region, with each line capable of carrying 600MW. The vandalism of the Towers and transmission lines present a significant challenge to bulk power transmission in that axis. And as explained by the General Manager Public Affairs Mrs. Ndidi Mba, the TCN management is committed to restoring bulk power transmission through both 330KV power transmission lines in the shortest possible time. Nevertheless, in a related development, residents within the Kaduna, Zaria and Kano axis are not happy with the activities of vandals and unpatriotic elements who deliberately sabotage and destroy transmission lines. They express disappointment that these faceless persons find no other work to do than stealing and wreaking havoc on transmission lines. They called on Federal Government and the National Assembly to come up with stiffer penalties for offenders adding that whoever is caught must face the law. ‘We are surprised that this practice still exists: charged one Usman Aminu, a trader who resides in Kaduna. “These people are enemies of the nation and must be treated as such”, he lamented. Another fellow decried the huge costs at replacing these vandalized properties. “No matter what, this is coming at extra unbudgeted cost for the TCN management”, said Isah Inuwa. But in an unprecedented move to end the decades old struggle with the National Grid, the TCN management have unveiled the cutting-edge advanced Supervision Control and Data Acquisition system for managing the national grid known as the SCADA technology. The SCADA system is not just a symbolic development, it represents the governments unwavering commitment towards addressing some of the issues holding the power sector down. For this reason, stakeholders across the sector have hailed the federal government and the Ministry of Power for taking this bold step and have urged them to go the whole hog and democratize the power supply lines. However, our reporters found out that some unpatriotic individuals masquerading as civil society organizations are still bent on exploiting this sad situation to blackmail the TCN management ‘That’s the usual practice; they come under the guise of carrying out demonstrations whereas behind the scene they blackmail management into parting with some cash”, disclosed a public affairs analysts based in Kaduna. “There is no TCN official who will deliberately vandalize transmission lines for any reason”, said the analysts, who further explained that officials of TCN are human beings and not robots! The analyst called on those wishing to exploit the situation to think twice otherwise the law will take its course.