National Grid Collapses Again

The national grid has collapsed again on Tuesday.

According to report, the grid lost power generation around 1:39 pm.

As of 1 pm, power generation was 2,711 megawatts, having previously peaked at 3,631 MW.

Earlier, power generation peaked at 3,934.77 MW around six o’clock in the morning.

However, between 2 pm and 3 pm, hourly generation dropped to 0.00 MW.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria confirmed that “the national grid experienced a partial disturbance at about 1:52 pm today, 5th November 2024.”

TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah said, “This followed a series of line and generator trippings that caused instability in the grid and, consequently, the partial disturbance of the system.”

She stated that data from the National Control Centre revealed that a part of the grid was not affected by the bulk power disruption.

“TCN engineers are already working to quickly restore bulk power supply to the states affected by the partial disturbance.

Presently, bulk power supply has been restored to Abuja at 2:49 pm, and we are gradually restoring it to other parts of the country.

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our electricity customers,” she said.

Recall that the minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu last month said the grid collapses are almost inevitable in Nigeria given the deplorable state of the country’s power infrastructure.

The minister also said there is a need to have power grids in different regions or states to put an end to incessant grid collapses. Adelabu said this on Wednesday when he unveiled Hexing Livoltek, an electricity metre manufacturing company in the Lekki area of Lagos State.

According to him, having multiple power grids in each region and state would ensure stability.

He noted that the decentralization of the power sector would help the plan to build grids in each region, saying this was made possible by the Electricity Act signed by President Bola Tinubu in 2023.

“This Electricity Act has decentralized power. It has enabled all the subnational governments, the state government, and the local government, to be able to participate in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity,” he said.

“We all rely on a single national grid today; if there is a disturbance of the national grid, it affects all 36 states. It shouldn’t be like that. This will enable us to start moving gradually towards having regional groups and possibly having state grids.

“And each of these grids will be removed and shielded from each other. So, if there’s a problem with a particular grid, only the state where it belongs will be affected, not the entire nation. So, this is one of the impacts this Electricity Act will have.”

Touching more on the grid collapse, he emphasized that the situation would be inevitable without sufficient investment in the sector.