Mc Lokko's Blog: Reasons You Might Not Be Having Light (electricity): To A Layman Understanding

Monday 2 February 2015

Reasons You Might Not Be Having Light (electricity): To A Layman Understanding

Defined below are Engineering terms for comprehensive and professional digestion;
Read below.....

-Operator: The qualified man (Engineer) that closes and opens feeders in a Control
Room.
- Injection Substation: A structure or building from which Control Room is created.
- Control Room: The room housing the Feeders and the Operator.
-Feeder: Electricity source of the Substation (Transformer) on your street from the
Control Room.
-Substation: Transformer on your street.
-Line: The path (Wire) along which Electricity travels from the feeder to your
Substation (Transformer).
-Relay: A part of the feeder that serves as eyes. It gives/shows reason(s) of trip
when there is/are fault(s).
-Trip: Feeder opening due to normal or abnormal situation as a result of either external
or internet fault(s)
- Power Transformer: This is the transformer at the Injection Substation from which
Feeders feeding Transformers (Substations) receive supply.
-Opening: Switching on
-Closing: Switching off
-Load shedding: Sharing of Electricity among consumers on 2 or more Feeders with a
common Power Transformer.
-Local load shedding: Sharing of Electricity among consumers on 1 Feeder.

Please, you should know that no Operator derives pleasure in Closing and Opening of Feeder. Operators do not have time and supposed energy for that. So, stop cursing and abusing when your light keeps going on and off within minutes. The Operator is only making effort you have light.

Besides, it is against the code of conduct of an Operator to close a Feeder after tripping if he hasn't informed the linesmen to patrol and locate area of fault and make amend.

Constant operation of Feeder is said to wear out the spring thereby resulting to replacing or repairing or managing (this also takes efforts in operating).

Here are few main reasons why you might not have been having light.

1. Load Shedding And Local Load Shedding:
(Note: Among reasons, this is the most important you need to understand clearly. I'm going to take my time explaining this)

Load Shedding (L/S) happens when power needs to be shared among consumers on a Building, Street, Neigbourhood, Local Government, State or Country as the case may be in order to relief the related Transformer from overloading. We can simply call Load Shedding “Damage Control” operation.

Case study:
An Injection Substation (Control Room) with Power Transformer of 15MVA has 4 Feeders. Namely;

Feeder 1 (Lagos)
Feeder (Anambra)
Feeder (Kano)
Feeder (Ogun)

-Lagos has 10 Substations (Transformers) with total sum capacity of 12MVA. And let's assume Lagos consume about 8MVA on full load (i.e. Lagos consumes less than the Transformers’ summed capacity)

-Anambra has 15 Substations (Transformers) with the total sum capacity of 17MVA. And let's assume Anambra consumes about 17MVA on full load (i.e. Anambra consumes equal to the Transformers’ summed capacity)

-Kano has 25 Substations (Transformers) with the total sum capacity of 5MVA. Let’s assume Kano consumes 5MVA on full load (i.e. Kano consumes equal to the Transformers’ summed capacity)

-Ogun has 7 Substations (Transformers) with the total sum capacity of 7MVA. While Ogun consumes only 1MVA on full load (i.e. Ogun consumes far less than Transformers’ summed capacity)

N.B: A transformer shouldn't be operated on 100%, but 75% capacity as factor of longevity.
But, let's assume all Transformers here work on 100% full load capacity.

Summary:
-Injection S/station Power Transformer: 15MVA
-Lagos: 12MVA (Consumes 8MVA)
-Anambra: 17MVA (Consumes 17MVA)
-Kano: 5MVA (Consumes 5MVA)
-Ogun: 7MVA (Consumes 1MVA)

Note: The sum of total consumption by States must not exceed 15MVA of the Injection Sub-station’s Transformer to avoid damage or tripping as a result of Over-load.

Since Anambra (17MVA) consumes more than Injection Substation Power Transformer of 15MVA, then LOCAL LOAD SHEDDING is going to be employed on the Feeder to avoid damage or trip on the Injection Substation Power Transformer due to over-load. At this point, some Substations (transformers) will be out of service.

This is a major reason you see some parts of your neighbourhood having light when you have not, and vice versa

This method is also applicable in Area that consumes more than the summed substations (transformers) supplying the Area.

A case study of an Area consuming 20MVA when the summed capacity of the substations (transformers) supplying the Area is 10MVA. This means that at least 10MVA load must be dropped so as to balance the grid so as to avoid damage of substations (transformers)

These are possibilities of operations on per day schedule;
(Giving out 15MVA)
After Anambra has been Locally load-shedded to 10MVA.
-Lagos (8MVA) + Ogun (5MVA) + Kano (1MVA) = 14MVA
-Anambra (10MVA) + Kano (5MVA) = 15MVA

Days Of Enjoyment On Each Feeder.
-Lagos: 3-4 days a week
-Anambra: 3-4 days a week, while local load-shedding goes on. It means some parts will have supply for 2-3 days a week.
-Ogun: 3-4 days a week
-Kano: 7 days a week

Note: Kano enjoys more supply because it has the lowest consumption rate, as Anambra suffers more as a result of Load Shedding and Local Load Shedding it suffers from.

2. Bypassing:
Like the happenings in some states, some Distribution Companies have decided to stop giving constant power supply due to shortage of revenue. Customers bypassing Pre-paid meter. Hence, consume more than they pay for.

What is the essence of the Company paying much when profit is not maximized.....they are still looking into the matter.

Note: Distribution Company pays Transmission Company (TCN), and Transmission Company (TCN) pays Generation Company.

3. System collapse:
This could be as a result of fault from Injection Substation or from TCN Station or from Generation Station (e.g. Shiroro)

4. Devil-May-Care Attitude:
Carelessness over the state of supply in your environment by not reporting to a nearby office if supply deteriorates. The efficiency and togetherness of the landlords and landladies go a longer way in this regard.

5. Damage:
Cases of Earth Fault, Over Current, Line-cut, dropped J&P, damaged fuse, damaged transformer, and the likes which could be due to vandalism, weather factor, etc

6. Unit Exhaustion:
Running out of Unit without knowing

7. Disconnection:
Termination of service cable as to non-remittance of bill.

8. Violence:
Fighting the officials on patrol, especially those conducting disconnection and. This could lead to black-out punishment.

You are free to add yours and ask questions.