TCN Blames National Grid Collapse On Afam Genco Fire Outbreak

After recording the third collapse in 2024, which resulted in nationwide blackout, the national grid was gradually being restored.

The grid, which collapsed at past 2 am on Monday, has been restored to 2,755.93 megawatts as at 5 pm yesterday.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) while confirming the restoration of the national grid said the collapse was following a fire incident at the Afam Power Generating Station, in River State.

The spokesperson for the commission, Ndidi Mbah, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

This will be the third time in 2024 the national grid has collapsed, resulting in nationwide power outages in the country.

The electricity grid, on February 4, collapsed for the first time in 2024.

Also, the country suffered another nationwide blackout following the collapse of the national grid on March 28.

According to Mbah, the collapse was caused by a fire which erupted at the Afam V 300kV busbar coupler, leading to the tripping of units at Afam III and Afam VI.

He further noted that the fire incident destabilised the grid, causing partial collapse.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announces the full restoration of the national grid following a fire incident at the Afam Power Generating Station, which caused a partial disturbance of the nation’s grid.At 02:41 Hours today, 15th April, 2024, a fire erupted at the Afam V 330kV busbar coupler, leading to the tripping of units at Afam III and Afam VI.

“This resulted in a sudden generation loss of MW and 305MW respectively, destabilising the grid and causing a partial collapse,” Mbah said.

Furthermore, the commission explained that the collapse did not affect the Ibom Power Plant which was isolated from the grid, and responsible for the electricity supply in some parts of Port Harcourt Region.

According to TCN, this minimised the effect of the disturbance of the system, as electricity consumers in those regions were not affected by the collapse.

“During the incident, the Ibom Power Plant was isolated from the grid and was supplying parts of the Port Harcourt Region.

“This further minimised the effect of the system disturbance. TCN confirms that the affected section of the grid has been fully restored and stabilised.

“TCN reaffirms its commitment to enhancing the resilience and reliability of the national grid and pledges to continue investing in measures aimed at further strengthening the grid infrastructure,” the statement added.

Data from ISO as at 8:00am, showed that the grid generated 266.50mw of electricity from Okpai, Geregu and Ibom power.

Only one generation company, Ibom Power, was active, according to data from the Independent System Operator (ISO), a branch of the TCN, showed.

Confirming the collapse in a statement, Jos DisCo said: “The current outage being experienced within our franchise States is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid. The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred in the early hours at about 0242Hours of today, Monday, 15th April 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders.”

The company’s head of Corporate Affairs, Dr Friday Adakole Elijah, expressed hope that the national grid will be restored for normal power supply to its esteemed customers.