Repair Reaches Advanced Stage on Odukpani- Ikot Ekpene Vandalized Transmission Tower
… As TCN Sets One Week Completion of Repairs
By Ekemini Simon
Intensive repair works have commenced on the vandalized electricity tower connecting Odukpani- Ikot Ekpene 330KVTransmission line.
It could be recalled that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had linked the nationwide power outage in early April to vandalisation of electricity tower connecting Odukpani- Ikot Ekpene 330KV Transmission line in Oku Iboku, Itu Local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has since commenced work with assurance that the repairs will be completed soon.
TheMail newspaper on Tuesday, May 10, 2022 joined officials of TCN on a visit to the site of the incident to assess the level of repair works carried out at the instance of the minister of power, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu, it was observed that repair works on the vandalised transmission Tower Number 104 on Odukpani- Ikot Ekpene 330kV double-circuit transmission line has been completed.
However, work was ongoing to fortify other towers minimally vandalised along the same line route, to enable the restringing and tensioning of the 330kV DC transmission line, before it is energised.
Briefing newsmen at the site, the Executive Director, Transmission Service Provider at TCN, Engr. Victor Adewumi stated that the tower has been reconstructed and work has reached an advanced stage after three weeks.
He blamed the delay on the difficult terrain and new discoveries around the transmission line but assured that efforts were redoubled to ensure prompt restoration of power to the affected areas.
Adewumi noted ” There were some challenges. For instance, we didn’t envisage that the integrity of the foundation was compromised so we had to start from scratch. It takes time to work on the foundation.
“Since we wanted to restore power very fast, we thought cranes would do the job, to lift up the conductor, unfortunately, the boom couldn’t reach the top of the grid. So we went to the normal way of lowering the wire to the tension tower.”
ED Transmission Service Provider of TCN, Engr. Victor Adewumi
The Executive Director explained that now that the tower has been fully reconstructed, restringing has to be done with the utmost care after other towers that were also tampered with have been fortified, to avoid the collapse of more towers.
He offered insight to the fact that work has reached 70 per cent completion and that TCN is doing everything possible to ensure that the 330kV DC transmission line is completed and reconnected to the national grid in one week, to ensure the evacuation of over 400MW stranded power at the Odukpani Power Plant as well as the restoration of power supply to Cross River State.
Adewumi appealed to the people of Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to exercise patience, stressing that TCN is doing everything within their powers to make sure that the repairs are completed soon.
“Of course, there is a blackout in the whole of Calabar. Everybody is waiting for the grid to come back to normal. But we want to tell the whole world that we are not sleeping”. He said.
The Executive Director appealed to the host community to take ownership of physical infrastructure sited within their domain, and protect them from vandals.
On his part, the Port-Harcourt Regional Transmission Manager, Engr. Daniel Udofia, restated that TCN were faced with many challenges that delayed the completion of the vandalized tower.
He noted “There were so many challenges that we faced when we started the work. If you look beyond here, you will see a Swamp and beyond the swamp, there is River.
“While we were trying to shift the Conductors , we took all these things into consideration so that the Conductor does not slip back to the swamp or the river. We don’t have divers and that alone would take more time. If this Tower was not vandalized, we would not have been here. So anywhere we have this kind of Infrastructure, it is very important we join hands to protect it”.