Following Saturday’s breakdown, Nigeria’s Transmission Company announced that the national electricity grid has been restored. Ndidi Mbah, the TCN Public Affairs General Manager, stated on Sunday that the collapse was just partial.
According to Mbah, “there was a partial disturbance of the grid at about 15.09Hrs yesterday, 6th July 2024.”
According to the TCN spokesperson, the unplanned tripping of three power-generating station units is suspected to have caused the grid collapse.
This action abruptly removed 313 MW from the grid, causing system instability that resulted in the loss of bulk supply to a portion of the national grid.
In the meantime, the company continued to feed Uyo, Aba, Itu, Eket, Calabar, etc. through the Ibom Power Station, which is how the system operator responded to the sudden drop in generation that caused a dip in frequency. This happened even though the other section of the grid was without supply.”
“Also, the operators began grid restoration efforts immediately following the incident. “The entire part of the grid that was affected by today’s incident was successfully restored around 21.57 hrs yesterday,” Mbah said.
Meanwhile, electrical users have blasted the national power grid’s persistent failures. This comes after power generation from all power plants fell to a mere 70MW around 3 p.m., having peaked at 3916MW around 10 a.m. on Saturday.
As of Saturday evening, distribution businesses had received zero allocations.
Just three days had passed since the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission approved an increase in Band A consumers’ rates from N206.80 to N209.50 per kilowatt-hour.
In Essence
The quick restoration efforts demonstrate the capability and preparedness of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to respond to emergencies.
However, more proactive measures are needed to prevent these incidents from occurring in the first place.
