Federal Gov’t Moves To Fix Incessant Power Grid Collapse In 9 Days

The minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has constituted a six-member Committee to advise the federal government on necessary solutions to make the national grid robust and reliable.

The minister gave the committee nine days to proffer solutions on the incessant national grid collapse and present a report to the minister on November 1, 2024.

Special adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations to the minister of power, Bolaji Tunji, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

Recall that the national grid has collapsed three times in the last one week.

The minister expressed displeasure at the incidents, which he said, was capable of rubbishing the giant strides recorded in the last one year.

Members of the committee include Nafisat Ali, executive director, Independent System Operator (ISO), who leads the committee; Dr. Chidi Ike, commissioner, NERC, and Engr. Ishola, general manager, National Control Centre (NCC).

Others are Emmanuel Nosike, director, Transmission, Ministry of Power; Ali Sharifai general manager, Transmission Service Provider (TSP), and Adedayo Olowoniyi, chief technical adviser to the minister of Power.

He said the committee members are expected to present a report to the minister on November 1, 2024.

“The committee is to also establish the root cause of both incidents, especially a review of potential sabotage on the system.

“The committee will holistically review the national grid stability and identify investments and technical capacities required to make the grid smart and resilient,” he stated.

Tunji, however, set the record straight, saying that on October 14, there was a partial collapse due to the tripping of a line at the Jebba Transmission Substation, and recurring fault at the Osogbo Transmission Substation.

He said that efforts to restore the grid further resulted in a setback the following day. The System was, however, fully restored on October 16.

”There was no grid collapse on Tuesday as was widely speculated as the setback was a continuation of Monday’s restoration efforts on the grid.

“What was described on Oct. 19, as grid collapse, was a deliberate protective shut down of the grid as a result of the explosion of the Jebba transformer. And this was restored within two hours.

”What we had were more grid disturbances than collapses.

“Preliminary assessment of the Jebba incident suggested that the explosion was as a result of ageing equipment unrelated to the initial collapse,” he said.

He added that the committee was an addition to the ongoing efforts of the government, like the Presidential Power Initiatives (PPI) and the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project (NETAP) to ensure reliable power supply.

He said that a technical team had also been deployed to access the critical nodes on the national grid, to identify potential vulnerabilities and proffer recommendations to prevent future disruptions.

LEADERSHIP reports that the minister had invited the leadership of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Transmission company of Nigeria (TCN) at the weekend to an emergency meeting over grid disturbance.