Power restored after arcing incident on Benin-Egbin 330kV line - TCN

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Tuesday, said that power supply has been restored to areas affected by arcing on the Benin-Egbin 330 Kilo Volt (kV) isolator at about 6:10 pm on Monday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that arcing is an electrical discharge that occurs when electrons flow between two conductors, usually metal in an environment with gas or vacuum.

Ndidi Mbah, TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, said in a statement on Tuesday, that the arcing caused lines tripping and consequent loss of supply to some areas.

She said; "However, the incident did not cause a system collapse.

"The lines tripping started earlier at about 2:47 pm on Monday with a heavy system surge that led to the arcing of Benin-Egbin 330kV line isolator fingers at the Egbin Transmission Substation switchyard.

"This resulted in a tripping at the Egbin Generating Station, which caused the loss of power supply to all the Egbin Transmission Substations’ outgoing lines.

"This led to an exponential increase in load on the Osogbo-Ihovbor 330kV line 1 with serious arcing of isolator terminals on the Osogbo-Ihovbor 330kV line 1,” she said.

According to her, to ensure that the sequence of events does not affect the nation’s grid, the Osogbo – Ihovbor 330kV line was opened to temporarily cut off the flow of electricity on that line.

Mbah said that at about 2:56 pm on Monday, the Benin-Egbin 330kV line 1 Circuit Breaker also tripped at the Benin Transmission Substation end.

"This resulted in the loss of supply to Lagos axis, parts of the South West Region, parts of the North Central and Abuja.

"Meanwhile, other areas, including the South Eastern region, North East, and other parts of North Central and South West, had full power supply.

"The line tripping was quickly rectified, enabling the grid controller to restore full bulk power supply through the transmission lines at about 6.10 pm on Monday,” she added.