Truck Hits TCN Power Tower, Throwing Parts of North-west into Darkness

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) yesterday disclosed that its electricity supply infrastructure in North-west Nigeria had been impacted by the impact of a truck which hit one of its towers in the region, throwing some areas into darkness.

A statement by the General Manager, Public Affairs of the TCN, Ndidi Mbah, stressed that the event occurred on Sunday, around Kano at about 9.28am.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that a trailer carrying a container drove into the base of TCN’s tower T16 located in Gunduwawa Village, Gezawa Local Government Area, Kano State, on Sunday,  August 11, 2024, destroying the tower and causing  outage in several communities in the North Western part of the nation.

“At about 9.28am, August 11, 2024, the Kano–Hadejia 132kV Transmission Line tripped, losing about 16.6MW. Trial re-closure of the line to enable continued bulk power supply failed, prompting the immediate dispatch of a patrol team to survey the line.

“ The team found that a trailer truck carrying a container had hit tower T16 situated in Gunduwawa and destroyed two legs of the tower causing it to buckle and fall,” Mbah stated.

The incident, she said, caused the tripping of the line, cutting off supply as the tower fell on the container and hit a nearby residential building damaging a part of it.

Although no life was lost, the incident, the TCN said, has been reported to Gezawa Divisional Police Station and the driver has also been detained.

“Unfortunately, this has put Hadejia, Gumel, Gagarawa, Nguru, Mallammadori, Birniwa, Kafin-Hausa, Auyo, Guri, Kaugama, Taura, Garki, Maigatari, Babura, Kirikasamma, Machina Local Government Areas in Jigawa and Yobe States in darkness.

“Presently, there is no alternative source of bulk power supply to two of TCN’s substations, the Gagarawa and Hadejia substations. This means that the affected areas will not have supply until the tower is repaired,” the TCN stated.

The company pledged to do everything possible to quickly dismantle the damaged tower, re-erect a new one and restring the lines to enable the resumption of bulk power supply to the two substations to enable the Distribution Companies (Discos) offtake power for its customers within the affected areas.

“A contractor has already been contracted to reconstruct the tower, he is expected to mobilise to the site of the incident today (Monday), the statement added.