A fire outbreak from a vandalsed oil pipeline in Lagos on Friday led to the collapse of five electric power towers, the Transmission Company of Nigeria said.
The incident took place along Isheri Olofin, off Igbando – LASU expressway and led to the damage of the 330kV Ikeja-West Akangba transmission line 1, burning off a large portion of the conductor.
The 330kV transmission line carries 145MW of bulk power to the Akangba Substation, TCN’s spokesperson, Mrs Ndidi Mba, explained in a statement.
Another explanation from The Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in the South-west region, Ibrahim Farinloye, said it was sparks from the fallen poles that led to the fire.
“The collapse of the electric cable led to electric sparks all over the area and the sparks got to the sight of spilled content of PMS around the area as a result of there was an outbreak of fire and subsequent explosion,” Farinloye said.
“The pipeline corridor has been known to have spillage often due to activities of vandals,” he explained.
The development caused a resistant pull on the high-tension towers along the line route causing five of them to collapse, Mrs Mba said.
“The transmission towers affected are the two closest to the site of the incident and three across the Lagos Canal.
“As a result of the incident, there is a major reduction of bulk power wheeled to TCN’s 330/132/33kV Akangba Transmission Substation in Lagos,” she said.
Mba said however that due to the fact that the substation takes supply from two different 330kV transmission lines, with the second being the redundant line, TCN would rearrange bulk electricity transmitted on that line route to the second 330kV previously carrying 59MW.
“Presently, TCN is successfully back-feeding the substations affected by the towers collapse, while the engineers are patrolling the second 330kV transmission line that tripped due to the incident, to ensure it has no-fault before it is energized. Once it is energized, supply will be restored to all the substations affected by the incident from the second 330kV transmission line, as the load carried by the burnt 330kV line will now be transferred to the second line.
“This kind of incident is a major setback to the implementation of our grid expansion and stability under our well-articulated Electricity Grid Maintenance, Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme. This is because the re-erection of five towers and restringing of the 330kV transmission line is a major project that costs a lot of money and will take a while to complete.
“TCN is by this appealing to Nigerians to desist from activities such as oil bunkering, and other destructive tendencies, as they all have very far-reaching negative effects on the nation at large. The issue of protecting our national assets is imperative. Protecting national assets is one that must be taken very seriously so that the stability of the nation’s network and the development of the nation is not compromised,” she said.
Vandalism of public infrastructure, including oil pipelines and power cable is common in Nigeria. It is often a source of mass deaths from fire outbreaks the result from these activities.
