By Obas Esiedesa,
Following a series of incidents that curtailed power supply across the country due to national grid collapses, the Nigerian Power Consumers Forum, NPCF, has pointed at possible acts of sabotage for the unusual fire outbreaks at transmission facilities.
The incidents came a few days after the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, declared that it had achieved 421 days of grid stability without any breakdown.
NPCF in a statement issued by its Convener, Michael Okoh said it was worried about the deliberate attempts to sabotage Federal Government’s efforts to ensure stable and improved power supply to Nigerians.
According to the group, “the fire incident at the Birnin Kebbi transmission substation switchyard is more of sabotage on the national grid systems. According to power engineers who have over three decades of experience, believe that technically, there is no way two power transformers separated by a reasonable distance from each other will be engulfed by fire simultaneously.
“Transformers have inbuilt system protection and the probability of a transformer ignition is quite low. However, saboteurs could devise any means to disrupt the flow of electricity by pulling out transformer components. According to immediate enquiries into the incident, both the 90MVA transformer on the 330kV line and the 60MVA transformer on the 132kV line experienced a fire incident simultaneously despite being apart, separated by a reasonable space. The issue of voltage or surge was ruled out as TCN has robust protection and isolation mechanisms; instead, only internal issues within the transformer can lead to such incidents.
“The internal components of the transformer consist of just two elements: the windings and the insulation materials, such as gases, oils, and SF6 gas, among others depending on the type of insulation. When pressure builds up within the transformer, it is essential to safeguard it with a Buchholz relay, positioned at the upper section of the transformer. The Buckholz relay serves as a protection against this internal pressure within the transformer. Should it malfunction, the pressure could escalate rapidly, potentially resulting in the transformer rupturing. While the investigation is ongoing, all indications refer to sabotage on both transformers as they are not linked and operate on two voltage levels and transmission lines.
“More so, Niger Republic used to receive bulk power from a 150MVA power transformer in the Birnin Kebbi substation, and because of the important role of this substation nationally and internationally, it is properly fitted with all protection and safety devices. The NPCF strongly notes that there may be an external force acting against the nation’s transmission system and we believe that the government of the day will strive to identify and bring the saboteurs and perpetrators of this act to book”.
The group noted that the TCN management led by Engr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz has done a lot of work to make the national grid resilient, adding that “for instance, in the history of Nigeria, the TCN for the first time, took delivery of over 30 power transformers in 2022 and all were deployed to site for onward installation. The projects TCN are executing to improve access to bulk electricity covers all the six geopolitical zones too.
“From independent assessment which started last year and up to this year, the Forum was able to confirm the various initiatives TCN deployed to stabilize the grid including the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and the deployment of the stop gap system as a placeholder for a smart grid system which is in the advanced stage of the procurement process for a robust deployment of a full-scale state-of-the-art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, SCADA/Energy Management System, EMS”.