Imminent Blackout In Oyo, Ogun, Osun As TCN Power Station Catches Fire In Ibadan

There is an imminent power outage in the whole of Oyo State, parts of Ogun and Osun States as the Ayede transmission station of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Ibadan was burnt on Wednesday.

The early morning fire completely burnt the Transfomer 1B, 150 mva, 330KV/132 Kv located inside the transmission station.

The station supplies power to almost the whole of Oyo state, Sagamu in Ogun state and Iwo in Osun state.

The inferno, which started at about 7 am, was said to have been as a result of a power surge that led to sparkling and lightening.

However, the fire was still burning as at 10.30 am with men of fire services trying to put it out.

According to Chief Operating Officer, Ibadan Electricity Distributing Company (IBEDC), Engineer John Ayodele, who described the fire incident as unfortunate, saying “for now, this transformer is part of the four transformers that are being used among Oyo, Osun and Ogun States especially Sagamu and others.

Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) stated that Ibadan, Oyo State capital and its environs, would be affected as a result of early morning fire at the Ayede substation.

The commission’s 150MVA, 330/132/33 kV major transformer at the transmission substation in Akinyemi area of Ring Road was engulfed with fire on Wednesday, leading to blackouts in the state.

Confirming the incident in a statement signed by the General Manager (GM)Public Affairs, Mrs. Ndidi Mba, did not give a specific cause of the fire but stated that its engineers were working to restore the burnt circuits.

“Presently, the fire has been contained and TCN is currently working to isolate the burnt circuits, to enable the restoration of bulk supply through the substation.

“This incident would temporarily affect power supply to Ibadan and environs. We, therefore, appeal to customers in the affected areas to bear with us as we would restore normal supply as soon as our engineers complete the restoration of the cables,” the statement reads.

However, it maintained that normal bulk supply would be restored as the substation has enough redundancy to adequately transmit the Disco load requirement.

It assured that: “The Head Transmission Service Provider and General Manager Transmission are already on their way to Ayede substation, to ensure that the situation is properly attended to. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the incident.”