By Isaac Anumihe (Abuja) and Adewale Sanyaolu (Lagos)
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), yesterday, said that the ongoing load shedding in the Lagos axis was as a result of the fire incident, which occurred in Egbin Power station on Wednesday, and necessitated the shutdown of all the generating units in the power station.
In a statement, the General Manager, Public Affairs of the company, Ndidi Mbah, said that with the shutdown of the units, a total of 630MW was removed from the grid.
“The removal of 630MW from the grid at the same time means that TCN had to strive to ensure that it achieved generation load balance to maintain the stability of the grid.
“This, it did by reducing bulk electricity to Lagos, to avoid overloading the 330kV lines within the state, while the third unit at the Shiroro station was tied. These were necessary to avoid the collapse of the nation’s grid,” the company, explained.
Meanwhile, Egbin Power Plant has resumed partial operations after it was shut down following a fire incident.
The Group Managing Director of Sahara Power, owners of the Egbin Power Plant, Mr Kola Adesina, who gave the update in a phone interview, maintained that though the operation is still partial with just one 220mw capacity turbine in operation, plans are on going to raise the output to 660 mw before Monday.
The power plant located in Egbin, Ikorodu area of Lagos is the largest thermal power plant in the entire sub-Saharan Africa. It contributes 16 per cent of the national grid and its shutdown for safety reason after the fire incident caused load shedding from the grid to the 11 Distribution companies (DisCos) across the country.
“The plant is not completely out of operation as erroneously reported. We only shut down as a safety measure but as I speak with you, one unit is back on stream generating 220mw. We understand the impact on the national economy, though it is a sequence but we have mobilised resources to ensure we continue to energise the economy,” Adesina said.