The Federal Government, through the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has announced plans to look into the reasons behind the repeated power grid failures that took place on Monday and Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, stated that there was no grid collapse but rather a system trip.
According to TCN, the national grid experienced a “partial disturbance” on Monday, with recovery efforts still ongoing by Tuesday.
In a statement, TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah explained that grid restoration began promptly, with Azura power station initiating the blackstart. However, by 10:24 a.m. on Tuesday, the recovery process hit a hurdle that caused a minor delay in progress.
WAVE NEWS reports that the power grid suffered another collapse on Tuesday during attempts to restore it.
“The slight setback notwithstanding, TCN continued with the grid recovery process, which has reached an advanced stage, ensuring bulk power availability to about 90 per cent of its substations nationwide. Supply has been restored to the Abuja axis and other major distribution load centres nationwide,” she revealed that as of 7 p.m. on Tuesday, many areas remained without power.
Mbah clarified that the partial disruption did not impact the Ibom Gas generating station, which was separated from the grid the previous day. It continued to provide power to regions in the South-South, including the Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and Itu 132kV transmission substations during that time.
“Investigation into the cause of the incident will be carried out as soon as the grid is fully restored,” she noted.
On Tuesday, while speaking to The PUNCH, the Minister of Power, Adelabu, stated that the grid had not collapsed.
“There was no a grid collapse; there was a trip-off. When you talk of grid collapse, it will involve 100 per cent of our grid infrastructure. But this was a line tripping in certain quarters in the country; even the major centres were not affected, talk of Abuja, Lagos, and Ibadan. And this was even restored within two hours.
“Let me tell you, grid disturbances are global. We are talking about electrical connections. There could be tripping off due to weather, due to the dilapidation of some infrastructure. What matters most is what is your rate of response to fix this. We responded swiftly and within two hours, we brought it back and it’s working now. So, it’s no big deal,” he stated.
