By Oke Peter
The Transmission Company of Nigeria energized the Odukpani – Ikot Ekpene 330kV Double Circuit Transmission lines at about 8.41 pm Sunday, 15th May, 2022, after completing the re-erection of the vandalized tower 104 and lines repair.
Consequently, TCN has commenced the evacuation of over 400MW stranded power generation from Odukpani Power plant to Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) for onward delivery to Cross River State and its environs.
The MD/CEO of TCN Engr. (Dr.) Sule Abudulaziz made this known today in a meeting with some power stakeholders in his office. According to him, the TCN engineering team and the contractor that handled the reconstruction project, worked tenaciously to re-erect the vandalized tower, they fortified other towers along the same line route whose members were also vandalized, and carried out the restringing of the 330kV double circuit transmission lines. With the completion of the repairs, the Odukpani power plant has been reconnected to the grid.
He noted that during the last visit of TCN management to the site of the tower incident on the 10th of May, 2022, to access the progress of work, TCN had promised to ensure that the project is completed and energized in one week, in his words, “we promised to complete and energize the double circuit transmission line in one week from our last visit, to ensure the evacuation of the stranded power from Odukpani Substation and to restore supply to electricity consumers in Cross-River State and environs, we have been able to complete and energize the line before the one week we promised”.
Recall that the vandalism and consequent collapse of tower 104 on April 8, 2022, was responsible for the last system collapse causing over 400MW from the Odukpani Power plant to be stranded from the grid. TCN’s engineers and contractors worked assiduously for 39days days in a very unfriendly terrain to ensure the restoration of bulk power to the Port-Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) for onward delivery to electricity customers in Cross River State and environs.
The MD/CEO again appealed to Nigerians to work with TCN and security operatives to ensure that we win the fight against the vandalism of our collective national assets, requesting that every community hosting power installation should be more attentive to activities around transmission towers.
