Some parts of Lagos State would be experiencing an eight-week power outage beginning from Monday next week to the end of November 2021, from 8am to 6pm daily.
The development was attributed to ongoing expansion project embarked upon by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) where the existing 132kv lines are being upgraded nationwide with more sophisticated brand new conductors replacing the existing weak ones.
Ikeja Electric which announced this yesterday, explained that the stage two of the four-staged expansion project within its area of operation would start from October 11 and run through November 26 or the end of the month.
Announcing this at a media briefing in Lagos, the Chief Technical Officer, Ikeja Electric, Mr. Olajide Kumapayi, said the expansion work would start from Ogba and progress to Alausa, Ikeja.
He listed areas to be affected by the project as well as the eight-week power outage to include Ogba, Police Training College (PTC) down to General Hospital at Ikeja axis, Oregun, Anifowose, Magodo, Omole Phase 1, Oba Akran, Ojodu, Oke iran and Alausa.
“Now, the implication of that is that from October 11, from 8.am to 6.pm everyday, this station is going to be out, and that will affect all those eight numbers’ 33kv feeders, over 35/11kv feeders and a lot of our end-use customers that are circuited under this network.
“So, from 8.am to 6.pm everyday, there will be no supply at all for two months because if want to replace a conductor, you need to de-energise every of such conductor that is near it to avoid an unforetold incidence,” Kumapayi said.
The chief technical officer said the stage two replacement project would start from Ikeja Electric Injection Sub-station at Ogba, down to the Alausa Injection Station, adding that 16 of the high tension towers from Ogba to Alausa would be replaced with new conductors.
According to him, the TCN was replacing the 132,000 volts high tension aluminium conductors with sophisticated brand new GAP conductors.
Noting that the advantage in the current upgrade was numerous, Kumapayi pointed out that, “these new conductors will ensure that there is more capacity to be able to wheel more power and energy over the distance.”
He added, “Another advantage of it is that you know, in this side of the town, the heat is there and technically when electricity is going in the conductors, it generates heat. And when the conductors are not used, it generates heat.
“Overtime, depending on how weak those conductors are, if the heat is too much, those conductors break. With this, it has a high thermal resistivity, such that, no matter the kind of heat in this area, nothing happens.”
He stressed that the expansion project would have an impact on the company’s customers – the residential, commercial and high demand customers.
He, however, urged members of the public not to lose sight of the ultimate benefits of the project.
“Hopefully, when work is completed by 6pm, then we will restore supply overnight and we take it out again from 8.am. And the estimated period of the project is eight weeks. So, the project will be completed between November 26 and end of November. And after that, there will be no more incidence of outages,” he said.
Source Thisday
