Emmanuel OchayiNigeria’s power grid stumbled yet again, marking the sixth collapse this year.
The collapse on Monday dawn witnessed a drop in electricity generation from 2,583.77 megawatts to a meager 64.7MW before recovery efforts took hold.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria attributed this particular collapse to a fire incident. However, this incident merely echoes the broader challenges plaguing the nation’s power infrastructure, including gas shortages and infrastructure vandalism.
“Loss of power supply from the national grid occurred in the early hours… hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders,” stated Dr. Friday Elijah, Head of Corporate Affairs at Jos Electricity Distribution Company, confirming the outage.
Economic activities in the South-East suffered a blow as the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company reported a total system collapse in its network. “The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc wishes to inform her esteemed customers of a total system collapse,” stated Emeka Ezeh, Head of Corporate Communications at EEDC.
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Grid collapses have become a recurrent nightmare for Nigeria. In February, power generation plummeted to 59.9MW before recovering, plunging the nation into darkness. The story repeats in March when generation dropped from 2,984MW to zero within hours.
Such incidents have far-reaching consequences, affecting millions of homes and businesses. The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company lamented, “Please be informed that the current power outage is due to a system failure from the national grid.”
Vandalism further exacerbates the situation. Tower 70 along the 330kV Gwagwalade-Katampe Transmission line fell victim to vandals, reducing power supply flexibility by 250 megawatts.
TCN, however, remains resilient in the face of these challenges, swiftly responding to incidents and mobilizing repair efforts. “TCN confirms that the affected section of the grid has been fully restored and stabilized,” assured Ndidi Mbah, TCN spokesperson.
As Nigeria grapples with these systemic issues, the need for sustainable solutions becomes ever more pressing. Vigilance against vandalism and investment in infrastructure resilience are crucial steps toward a more stable and reliable power grid.
In the words of TCN, “We reiterate the need for vigilance in the fight against vandalism of power equipment. It is important that we report suspicious movements around all power equipment to security operatives or the nearest TCN offices nationwide.”
