LAHORE: National Transmission and Despatch Company’s mega 500kV Sheikhupura grid station caught fire on Monday, causing loss of millions of rupees as its one of the four transformers and allied installations were completely damaged.

Since the cause of fire is yet to be ascertained, the incident reportedly left various rural and urban areas near Sheikhupura without electricity for hours. However, the officials in NTDC and the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) claimed that the fire incident didn’t affect the power distribution system.

“A portion of the grid station caught fire due to sparking in the tertiary winding of one of the four 600MVA transformers. This led to completely damaging the transformer and the parts connected with it. Damage worth millions of rupees was estimated,” an official source in the company told Dawn.

“It seems to be case of the ‘procurement of substandard material’,” he said, terming the incident surprising due to burning of the transformer in the ongoing winter—the time when the system has no load due to decreased electricity demand.

On the other hand, NTDC General Manager Muhammad Anwaar said a team extinguished the fire and isolated the damaged transformer from others. “We have also launched a probe to find out the causes behind the incident,” he said, adding that the grid station is operational.

“Moreover, no power disruption happened in any area of Sheikhupura,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Static Var Compensator (SVC) of 220kV Kot Lakhpat amounting to millions of rupees got damaged just after one month three days after its energisation, according to another official source.

“This equipment was on warranty and obtained from the company. Earlier, the same part also got damaged surprisingly for a couple of times,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022