Engineers of the Ghana Grid Company (GridCo) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) have been working around the clock to restore electricity supply to some parts of Tamale affected by Monday’s fire outbreak at GridCo’s substation.
The late evening fire at the feeder room of GridCo’s substation in Tamale plunged the entire metropolis into darkness following the destruction of an 11KV power feeder.
Officials say the fire started they were about to trigger routine fault diagnostics and repairs, when some sparks were observed on top of a near-by take-off pole causing strange sounds from the breakers followed by sequence of explosion and eventual fire.
Personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service arrived at the scene on time to extinguish the fire.
Though electricity supply was restored to some areas in the metropolis after few hours, most areas remained without electricity 24 hours after the incident.
Engineers worked throughout Tuesday night to restore power to some more areas. As of Wednesday morning, about 80 per cent of the areas within the metropolis have had power restored.
Addressing a news conference Tuesday, authorities of NEDCo pleaded with residents of Tamale and its environs to exercise restraint while they continued to restore power all affected areas.
Corporate Communication Manager at NEDCo, Maxwell K. Kotoka, said the 11KV feeder which supplies power to domestic users and small businesses in and around Tamale was destroyed but said the 34.5KV dedicated to critical installations like the Airport, Tamale Teaching Hospital and the Ghana Water Company among others was intact.
“… It is consoling that in the midst of all this, power supply to critical installations like GWCL, the Airport, the TTH among others which are all on the 34.5kv, is uninterrupted,” he said.
Mr Kotoka said management has adopted short term measure to switch those on the destroyed feeders to the 34.5KV feeder.
He said the measure was not be comprehensive hence not all consumers would be covered under new arrangement, noting that the situation could lead to load management in the metropolis.
“If it becomes necessary and we find it practicable, we may have to resort to some limited load management. If that would happen, we would not hesitate to share with you the schedule,” he stated.
He also said management a number of breakers were being brought from Techiman and Wenchi to be used as provision routes of supply to parts of the metropolis.
Touching on the medium to long term measures, Mr. Kotoka said they would to ensure full replacement of all burnt equipment, but said there would be thorough investigations before installing the replacements to avoid such occurrence again.
“The short term measures may not cover the entire length and breadth of Tamale township whereas the medium to long term measure would take some time to materialize,” he explained and urged consumers to bear with them.
By Zubaida Ismail|3news.com|Ghana