Fire razes TCN substation in Birnin Kebbi, cause remains unknown

Oredola Adeola

A fire incident occurred on Thursday night at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) 330/132kV transmission substation located in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.

The cause of the fire is unknown as Ndidi Mbah, TCN spokesperson was not available to respond to messages sent to her.

However, first responders and security agents are reportedly making efforts to curtail the fire and reduce the impact on the facility.

EnergyDay’s check showed that the Birnin Kebbi Sub-Region has two 90 MVA 330/132/33kV transformers, installed in 1976 and 2006 respectively. A 50MVA 132/33kV transformer was added to the substation in 2013, while another transformer was commissioned and energized in 2019.

In the hours of Thursday morning, there was a nationwide blackout in Nigeria that lasted for more than 12 hours. The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, and TCN attributed the incident to a fire outbreak that caused an explosion sound on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator. The burning of the blue phase CVT and line isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was also observe.

The explosion on the transmission facility that connects two power plants in Niger state, leading to a nationwide blackout that lasted for more than 12 hours.

details later ….