Residents in parts of Lagos and Ogun states have been experiencing reduced electricity supply after a drop in power allocated to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, sparked a disagreement between the distribution company and the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, over the cause of the disruption.
EKEDC said the reduction was caused by problems affecting the national grid and low electricity generation from a major power source. The company said its allocation fell from 486 megawatts to 347MW, leaving it with less power to distribute to customers.
According to the electricity distributor, the reduced allocation has affected customers in parts of southern Lagos as well as industrial communities around Agbara in Ogun State.
EKEDC said it had adjusted supply to some electricity feeders as part of efforts to manage the available power. It added that the changes would affect some areas, including customers on Band A, while efforts were being made to improve the allocation.
The company said it was working with TCN to restore the amount of electricity available to it and would try to move some of the reduction to lower-tier feeders where possible.
However, TCN rejected EKEDC’s explanation and said the disruption was not caused by an outage on its T11 transformer, as had been suggested by the distribution company.
The transmission company said the incident was linked to problems involving EKEDC’s Oniru 33kV and Agungi 33kV feeders.
TCN said both feeders tripped at about 4:34am on August 26 because of an overcurrent and an earth fault. The incident then affected one of TCN’s transformers and caused its primary and secondary breakers to trip.
The transmission company said the incident produced a loud bang and smoke, prompting its maintenance team to respond to the affected equipment.
According to TCN, its workers repaired the damaged secondary breaker and restored the transformer’s primary and secondary breakers later that same day.
The situation, however, was not fully resolved after EKEDC attempted to reconnect its Oniru feeder. TCN said the same relay indications triggered another trip, leading to the need for additional corrective work.
The disagreement between the two electricity companies comes as residents and businesses in the affected areas continue to deal with reduced power supply.
For households, the disruption has affected normal electricity use, while businesses and industrial operators in areas such as Agbara face additional challenges in maintaining their operations.
Both companies have indicated that efforts are ongoing to address the problem, although they have given different accounts of what caused the reduction in electricity supply.
EKEDC said normal supply would return once its allocation improves, while TCN’s account points to faults involving the distribution company’s feeders as the immediate cause of the incident.