. Zero MW, Total grid failure plunges Nigeria Into darkness
Chigozie Amadi
The National Grid, which is the infrastructure that connects power generation stations to electrical loads throughout the country, has collapsed again, for the seventh time in 2024.
The collapse, Daily Champion reports, occurred around 2:42 am on Monday, with generation dropping to 64.70 megawatts.
Only one generation company, Ibom Power was active, according to data from the Independent System Operator (ISO), a branch of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, has shown.
However, the latest data from the ISO as at 8:am, showed that the grid is currently generating 266.50mw of electricity from Okpai, Geregu and Ibom power.
Confirming the collapse in a statement, Jos DisCo said: “The current outage being experienced within our franchise States is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid. The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred in the early hours at about 0242Hours of today, Monday, 15th April 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders.”
The company’s head of Corporate Affairs, Dr Friday Adakole Elijah, expressed hope that the national grid will be restored for normal power supply to its esteemed customers.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said that it had successfully restored the national grid after it’s seventh collapse in 2024.
TCN said that the facility was successfully restored to its full capacity following a fire incident at the Afam Power Generating Station.
The transmission firm stated that the fire disaster caused a partial disturbance of the nation’s grid which was experienced across the country on Monday.
Disclosing this through a statement made available to newsmen, the General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Ndidi Mbah, stressed that efforts were being intensified to boost investment on measures designed to strengthen the grid infrastructure.
According to the statement, “The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announces the full restoration of the national grid following a fire incident at the Afam Power Generating Station, which caused a partial disturbance of the nation’s grid.
“At 02:41Hours today, 15th April, 2024, a fire erupted at the Afam V 330kV bus bar coupler, leading to the tripping of units at Afam III and Afam VI. This resulted in a sudden generation loss of 25MW and 305MW respectively, destabilizing the grid and causing a partial collapse.
“During the incident, the Ibom Power Plant was isolated from the grid and was supplying parts of the Port Harcourt Region.
“This further minimized the effect of the system disturbance. TCN confirms that the affected section of the grid has been fully restored and stabilized.
“TCN reaffirms its commitment to enhancing the resilience and reliability of the national grid and pledges to continue investing in measures aimed at further strengthening the grid infrastructure”.;
