The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the restoration of the national grid has been completed following its collapse on Wednesday.
TCN in a statement by its General Manager, Ndidi Mbah, said the national grid experienced system disturbance at about 11.27am on Wednesday, 20th, July 2022, adding that the incident was a result of sudden drop in system frequency from 49.94Hz to 47.36Hz, which created system instability.
According to reports obtained from the National Control Centre (NCC), it was precipitated by the tripping of a Unit (with a load of 106 MW) in one of the generating stations due to “Exhaust over Temperature”.
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Ms Mbah said this unwholesome event, which pulled out other grid-connected Units in the plant, resulted in aggregated generation loss of 457MW. In its wake, a train of events ensued – culminating in the collapse of the national grid.
She further noted that “as obtainable in all systems, when a component of the electric power system is defective, the entire configuration is vitiated. However, inspite of setbacks encountered at the initial stage, grid restoration had almost been completed as at 11:00pm when this report was filed.”
While appreciating the kind understanding of Government and consumers of electricity within and outside the country, the GM said the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry is committed to leveraging the concerted interventions instituted thus far to enhance power supply reliability so that the issue of system collapse will soon become a thing of the past.
Meanwhile, Ms Mbah asserted that a full-scale investigation is being conducted to establish the cause of this failure.
The latest power grid collapse once again drew criticism and raised questions about the country’s inability to overcome its power challenges.
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, was one of those who condemned the grid collapse, saying it was one too many.
He promised to resolve it if voted into power.
“Due to the priority that I place on the power sector upon which the successes of other sectors are hinged, I am proposing innovative financing of infrastructure that will involve the facilitation of a review of the financial, legal, and regulatory environment to promote private investment in power, among other sectors,” he said.
“I’ll promote the incentivisation, with tax breaks, a consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all the sectors of the economy.”
