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The Transmission Commission of Nigeria has announced electricity disruption in parts of Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Bauchi, and Yobe States, as well as Gazaoua in the Niger Republic.
The spokesperson of TCN, Ndidi Mbah, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.
The outage is due to planned maintenance at Kumbotos’ 330 kilovolt transmission substation on Sunday.
Consequently, electricity customers served by Kano Electricity Distribution Company, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, and Yola Electricity Distribution Company will experience power disruption.
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“The scheduled maintenance is to enable the TCN contractor to continue the ongoing upgrade of 330kV bus II jumpers and replace the existing 350mm² conductors with 800mm² conductors in order to strengthen the transmission network and improve power reliability.
“As a result, Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) and some part of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC) and Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) will be unable to off-take power for distribution to their customers in Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa States, as well as Azare in Bauchi State, Nguru in Yobe State, and also Gazaoua in the Niger Republic,” TCN stated.
The General Manager of Transmission Service at TCN, Mr Ali Sharifa, who made this known yesterday in Keffi, Nasarawa State, at a workshop organised for journalists covering the power sector, lamented that 2024 and 2025 have been the most trying times for TCN concerning vandalism of its transmission line infrastructure by non-state actors.
He stated: “A total of 86 towers were vandalized in 2024, with 26 towers completely down, which left affected states in total darkness.
“While in the first and second quarters of 2025, a total of 42 acts of vandalism were recorded affecting a total of 178 towers.”
According to him the major effect of the vandalism is the disruption of power supply across the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry, as the generated power from the generation station could not be wheeled to the distribution ends.
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He added, “Other effects of vandalism include the increment of significant costs by the company due to repairs, replacement and the need for increased security measures to address vandalism.
“The company’s grid expansion efforts are hindered by acts of vandalism to pay contractors’ invoices used on repairs.
“And there is also the concern with public safety whenever transmission infrastructure is vandalised”.
Aside the activities of vandals, Sharifa added that natural disasters also hindered the free flow of electricity to the grid, as TCN recently recorded along Kainji-Birnin Kebbi 330kV SC (International) line.
He stated: “Six towers, T306, 1307, T308, T365, T366 and 1367 collapsed in May due to a windstorm and torrential rainfall.
“In the same May, Apir-Lafia-Jos 330kV DC Line Tower T137 had a twist (partial collapse) due to windstorm and torrential rainfall.”
