Blackout as truck hits transmission tower in Abuja

A truck loaded with gravel on Tuesday lost control and rammed into 132kV transmission tower No 20 at the Katampe substation belonging to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

This was even as it said efforts were being made to put in place a bypass from the Katampe Substation to the GIS substation in the Central Area to restore power supply to the area and environs.

In a statement issued by the Company’s Spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, TCN said the affected tower supplies bulk electricity to the 100MVA part of the Katampe Substation and 2x60MVA GIS Central Area Substation.

According to the statement, the incident occurred at about 2.55 pm on Tuesday but no casualties were recorded.

However, it said attempts were being made by TCN engineers to remove the conductors presently lying on the road to ensure ease of traffic around the area.

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“Presently TCN engineers are at the site of the incident and are already assessing the level of damage and attempting to put in place remedial installation in the form of a temporary by-pass to restore electricity supply to the affected areas. Consequent to the incident, there is a restricted outage in Maitama, Wuse, Central Area, and some parts of Garki.

“Meanwhile, as every effort is being made to put in place a remedial source of supply, TCN is assuring affected customers that it will work round the clock to ensure that restoration is quickly achieved, after which it would commence the dismantling and reconstruction of a new transmission tower to replace the damaged one,” the statement read.