By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced full restoration of the national grid which experienced breakdown in the wee hours of Monday.
A statement signed and issued on Monday by the company’s general manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, *described it as a partial collapse due to a fire incident* that happened at the Afam power generating station, which caused a partial disturbance of the nations grid.
“At 02:41Hrs 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 said, reaffirming its commitment to bolstering the grid infrastructure with continuous investment.
Nigerians were thrown into darkness again as a result of the grid failure, leading to disruption in supply to consumers of the essential commodity by distribution companies (DisCos).
This was confirmed by some DisCos that took to their social media pages to issue notice, appealing for patience and understanding from their customers.
According to reports, the grid collapsed around 2:42 am on Monday, with generation dropping to 64.70 megawatts (MWs).
Data from the Independent System Operator (ISO), a branch of the TCN, has shown that only one generation company, Ibom Power, was active.
As at 8am on Monday, it was learnt, the latest data from the ISO showed that the grid is currently generating 266.50mw of electricity from Okpai, Geregu, and Ibom power.
This is coming barely two weeks, Thursday, 28 March to be precise, after the grid suffered what the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) described as grid disturbance, leading to blackout in most part of the country as confirmed by DisCos who took to their social media pages to appeal to their customers for patience and understanding, making it the fourth in the last five months.
SUMMIT POST reported a system collapse that occurred on 12 December, 2023, leading to a crash in power generation from 4,032.8MW to 43.5MW, and another on 4th February, 2024.