TCN Blames Grid Collapse On Fire Outbreak

The collapse of the national grid reported earlier on Thursday which threw the whole country into darkness followed a fire outbreak on the Kainji/Jebba 330kV transmission line 2, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said.

The transmission company, which gave the reason for the grid collapse in a statement in Abuja, confirmed efforts to recover the system nationwide were in progress.

The TCN spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, who signed the statement said the restoration efforts, which have  reached advanced stages, said normal electricity supply has now been restored in sections of the country, including the West, North Central, South, East, and a large portion of the Northern parts.

Mbah said systems collapse, which occurred at about 12.35 a.m., on Thursday, causing power outages nationwide, “after over 421 days of consistent grid stability.”

She said in the course of the grid restoration, the process suffered initial setback, which was promptly resolved to avert another collapse.

“The last time total system collapse was recorded was on 20th July 2022. Since then, to the 13th of September, 2023, (about 421 days). Prior to this, the system had been stable in spite of the challenges posed by zero spinning reserve and lack of System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) essential to a strong and stable grid, among others,” Mbah said.

She attributed the 400 days grid stability achiever by TCN to its development and deployment of in-house stop gap measures and tools used in managing the national grid.

Despite the latest incident, Mbah said TCN was determined to continue to do its best to ensure grid stability to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply.

Meanwhile, she said management has commenced investigations into the circumstances that resulted in the fire incident on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2, which caused the system collapse, to strengthen the grid and forestall future occurrence.

Nigerians were on Thursday morning thrown into darkness after the national grid system collapsed.

The system is operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) from Osogbo, Osun State.

Some of the nation’s Distribution Companies confirmed that the grid collapsed in the early hours of Thursday, as most of their feeders are out.

The latest collapse is coming weeks after the TCN announced that the country’s power grid had maintained uninterrupted stability for over 400 consecutive days.

The TCN had in August said the Nigerian power grid has recorded an unparalleled period of stability in the history of the power sector, operating without any major disruptions or systems collapse for an impressive span of 400 consecutive days and counting.

“This milestone signifies a remarkable advancement in the nation’s efforts at strengthening its power infrastructure and ensuring a reliable and dependable electricity supply to distribution load centres for onward distribution to electricity customers nationwide,” the company said in a statement.

In recent years, the power sector has experienced many broad challenges related to electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and major power sector planning shortfalls.

In 2022 alone, the country’s national grid collapsed eight times.