Reps To Probe Incessant Collapse Of National Grid

House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the causes of incessant national grid collapse and the capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to address the trend to forestall future occurrences.

The resolution followed a motion of urgent national importance by Sani Bala (APC, Kano) on the need to find a lasting solution to the situation which he described as embarrassing to the country.

According to him, the national grid collapses occur when there are system disturbances along the transmission lines connecting a number of generating stations.

He said since 2013 when the privatisation of the power sector took place, the country had witnessed over 100 national grid collapses, which he said experts and operators had declared would linger for a long time if not addressed.

Bala said in 2022 alone, the national grid had collapsed seven times (more than the three times recorded last year), causing national power outages with enormous socio-economic implications.

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In his contribution, the deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu, said the collapse had continued to occur more frequently than when Nigerians had access to power supply.

He said the essence of the motion was to find out what could be done to cure power generation in the country, lamenting that while a country like South Africa generates about 50,000 megawatts of electricity, Nigeria is still battling to generate 5,000 megawatts.

The House, however, mandated its Committee on Power to conduct investigation into the root causes of incessant national grid collapse in the country viz-a-viz TCN’s capacity to address the ugly trend, in order to forestall future occurrences and protect our already fragile socio-economic environment.