TCN Confirms Another Grid Collapse, Says Power Restored in Most Parts of Nigeria

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja and Peter Uzoho in Lagos

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) yesterday confirmed another collapse of the national power grid, two months after a similar incident, with the development causing a nationwide outage at about 1.49 pm.

Data from the system operator indicated that supply fell from 4,032.80 megawatts to 43mw, before rising to a meagre 303mw at about 5pm.

A number of Distribution Companies (Discos) confirmed that their feeders were out, even as the over 22 electricity plants on the grid fell to zero at some point.

Recently, the TCN celebrated what it termed 400 days of “no system collapse.”

At just after 1pm yesterday, only Ibom power was left on the grid even as Azura returned to the grid at about 5pm with 303mw. Many Discos confirmed to their customers that their feeders were out yesterday.

TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, in a brief statement said the restoration of the national power grid was already ongoing last night.

According to Mbah, the power supply had already been restored in Abuja and a few other areas. “Abuja has already been restored, so have different areas. Full restoration is ongoing,” she said.

A further check on the system operators showed that as at 3pm , the grid had begun to pick, with about 115.40 mw, while it rose to 616mw  at about 6pm, indicating that restoration was ongoing nationwide.

“The collapse happened by 13.49 this afternoon. It is now almost fully restored by 18.51 pm. The grid experienced a collapse today.  Presently, it (supply) has been restored except for the Jos Axis, which will soon have supply within the hour,” a further post by Mbah noted.

But following the incident, some of the distribution companies (Discos) had alerted their customers of the grid breakdown and its impact on power supply.

The Aba Power Ltd had notified consumers in its ring-fenced area covering nine local government areas in Abia State of the development.

Apologising for the blackout, the utility firm, which is Nigeria’s 12th Disco, pledged to resume power supply once the “problem is sorted out”.

In a statement signed by the Aba Power Managing Director, Patrick Umeh, the company said “The National Control Centre (NCC) engineers are sparing no effort to restore electricity throughout the country as soon as possible”.

In a message to its customers, Ikeja Electric apologised for the long period of outage.

“Dear Prestige Customer, Kindly be informed that the present outage is due to a fault in the system collapse. Supply will be restored as soon as possible. Kindly bear with us”, Ikeja Disco said.

Nigeria, a nation of over 200 million persons still depends on about 4,000mw to power their homes and businesses. Many citizens depend on generators, a major source of carbon emissions.

The Minister of Power,  Mr Adebayo Adelabu is expected to make public his blueprint for the revamping of the power sector later today.