Blackout hits Ogba, Oke-ira communities in Lagos

<p><strong>By Doris Israel Ijeoma<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Some parts of Lagos will soon plunge into darkness for eight weeks to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria &lpar;TCN&rpar; to re-conduct its 132KV lines&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This was made known by Chief Technical Office of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company&comma; Olajide Kumapayi at a news briefing on Monday in Ikeja&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The company said starting from October 11&comma; some areas under its operational network will experience power outages for two months&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The project would increase the capacity of the transmission lines to generate more power from the generation companies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He noted that some of the 132K lines installed over 50 years ago had become obsolete and degraded due to time and usage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Affected areas at this stage of the project include <strong>Oregun&comma; Police Training College&comma; Oba Akran&comma; Oke Ira&comma; Ogba&comma; Magodo&comma; Anifowoshe and Omole Phase One&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The TCN is currently embarking on the upgrade of the 132KV lines from Ikeja West to Ota and Alimosho in stages&period; This is the second stage&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The TCN is replacing all the aluminium conductors with gap conductors&comma; which are more sophisticated to withstand heat and have more capacity to carry current&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The implication of this is that from 8 a&period;m&period; to 6 p&period;m&period; everyday&comma; the substations controlling these areas will be switched off&comma; which will affect the feeders connected to them&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This will affect all categories of customers within the area&comma; especially our Maximum Demand &lpar;MD&rpar; customers such as Ikeja City Mall&comma; Police College&comma; Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and the Ikeja High Court&comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> Mr Kumapayi said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said Alimosho and Agege axis would be next&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;