THE nation was yet again thrown into darkness when the national grid system, operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) from Osogbo in Osun State packed up.
Incidentally, the collapse on Thursday is coming barely a week after TCN celebrated its 400 days of grid stability.
Ιn 2022, the nation’s grid collapsed at least four times, which authorities blamed on technical problems.
The outage threw Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja into darkness. The grid has collapsed several times, and it remained uncertain when power would be restored.
According to reports, the national grid plummeted to 273 megawatts of electricity generated from two out of the over 27 electricity generation in the early hours of Thursday.
A statement by Head, Corporate Communications, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) Emeka Ezeh, raised the alarm of a “system collapse,” as it informed its customers in the South East of the dire situation.
He stated that the total system collapse occurred at 12:40am today, September 14, and has resulted to the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network.
According to EEDC, which supplies electricity to the South East, “due to this development, … we are unable to provide service to our customers.”
Ezeh explained that “power generation fell to zero early on Thursday and had risen to 273 megawatts (MW) by 10:30 GMT, well below the daily average of 4,100MW, data from the Transmission Company of Nigeria showed.”
Meanwhile, according to reports, as 4 a.m. on Thursday, five generating plants were on the grid. Afam VI had 0.70MW, Dadinkowa was generating 0.00MW, Ibom Power had 32.90MW, Jebba had 240MW and Olorunsogo was on the grid with zero generation.
The Guardian reported that about midnight, the total power on the grid was 35mw meaning that the country had experienced a total collapse.
The development, meant that EEDC was “unable to provide service to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre (NCC), Osogbo.
“Power supply shall be restored as soon as the national grid is powered back,” noted a statement from the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, which supplies power to parts of the north.
