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Again, Nigeria’s electricity grid collapses

Sulaiman Umar
15 Oct, 2024
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Nigeria’s electricity grid on Tuesday collapsed yet again, throwing several cities into darkness.

The grid collapsed around 9:17 a.m. on Tuesday, with generation dropping significantly.

The latest collapse is coming barely 24 hours after a grid collapsed and disrupted Businesses on Monday.

Confirming the collapse, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDP) said, “Dear valued customer, kindly be informed there was a system collapse at 09:17 hrs, which has resulted in a loss of power supply across our network.

“We are currently working with our partners as we hope for speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as the power supply is restored. Kindly bear with us,” it said.

Ikeja Electric said: “Dear esteemed customer, Please be informed that we experienced another system outage today, 15/10/24, at 09:17 hrs, affecting supply within our network.

“Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders. Kindly bear with us,” it said.

TCN speaks

On Tuesday, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in a statement by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said the national grid experienced a partial disturbance on Monday, 14th October 2024, at about 6:48 p.m. and noted that efforts to fully recover the grid are still ongoing.

Ms Mbah said although the recovery of the grid commenced immediately, with Azura power station providing the blackstart, grid recovery reached advanced stages at about 10.24 a.m, Tuesday when it encountered a challenge that caused a slight setback in the recovery process.

“The slight setback notwithstanding, TCN continued with the grid recovery process, which has reached an advanced stage, ensuring bulk power availability to about 90 per cent of its substations nationwide,” Ms Mbah said.

She said supply had been restored to the Abuja axis and other major distribution load centres nationwide.

“The partial disturbance did not affect the Ibom Gas generating station, which was islanded from the grid yesterday and continued to supply areas in the South Southern part of the country such as Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and Itu 132kV transmission Substations during the period.

“Investigation into the cause of the incident will be carried out as soon as the grid is fully restored,” she said.

In recent years, the power sector has experienced many challenges in areas of electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and significant power sector planning shortfalls.

In November 2013, the federal government privatised all power generation and 11 distribution companies, with the government retaining the ownership of the transmission company. This was to improve efficiency in the sector.

However, since privatisation, the grid has continued to collapse amid efforts to reposition the power sector.

culled from Premium Times