NEMSA evaluates power lines nationwide

By Energy Worth
The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency on Tuesday announced the commencement of a nationwide technical monitoring and evaluation of power lines and sub-stations.
It stated that the exercise was for the primary 33KV feeder lines and associated 33/11KV injection sub-stations with supply source from 330/132/33KV transmission sub-stations.
NEMSA said the exigency of the exercise was to identify constraints militating against the quick realisation of the Federal Government’s policy and efforts towards incremental, stable and uninterrupted power supply.
It stated that the evaluation exercise was important as stable supply of electricity could be achieved through the 33KV primary feeder lines to the 33/11KV injection sub-stations and subsequently through the 11KV feeder lines and associated distribution transformers before getting to consumers.
The agency said the exercise was also to identify the high risk and technical loss points along the 33KV feeder lines.
It said the evaluation would enable the agency to find out the causes/reasons for load rejection by power distribution companies and to make recommendations for dealing with identified issues and challenges.
The Managing Director, NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, said, “The importance of the exercise cannot be overemphasised in the light of the spate of increasing numbers of electrical accidents and incidents, power failures and outages at the downstream of the power value chain, even when there is a huge increase in power generation on the grid.”
He stated that the exercise had so far covered Abuja, Ikeja, Kano, Benin, Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Enugu Discos’ networks and was ongoing.
“The exercise will identify high risk defective networks that pose serious threat and danger to operators’ operational staff and the general public for immediate attention and correction/rectification by the respective Discos and the Transmission Company of Nigeria,” Ewesor stated.
He noted that during the exercise, some of the Discos that had been covered received immediate order to effect rectification of the defects and lack of procedures that were observed.