Electricity supply has been restored in Nigeria hours after a nationwide blackout due to the collapse of the national grid on Thursday morning.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) announced it in a post on its X (formerly Twitter) handle late on Thursday.
The post reads: “Dear Valued Customer, Kindly be informed that the power supply has been restored from the grid. Thank you for your patience.”
The grid reportedly dropped to a meagre 273 megawatts of electricity in the early hours of Thursday.
According to The Guardian, the 273 megawatts are got from two out of the over 27 electricity generation stations.
A number of distribution companies confirmed that the grid went down at 00:41 AM, disclosing that most of their feeders were out.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN) late on Thursday evening announced the commencement of grid restoration.
General Manager of Public Affairs at TCN, Ndidi Mbah disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday.
The statement read: “TCN hereby notes that grid restoration nationwide is in progress and has reached advanced stages with power supply now available in the West, North Central, South, East, and a large portion of the Country’s Northern parts.
“The power supply restoration is a sequel to the total grid collapse, which occurred at about 12.35 am this morning, causing outages nationwide after over 421 days of consistent grid stability.
“During the grid restoration, the process initially suffered a setback; this does not amount to another collapse. In the course of any grid restoration process, challenges may be encountered. This happened today while the grid restoration was in progress, but it was promptly addressed.
“It would be recalled that the last total system collapse recorded was on July 20, 2022, and since then, to September 13, 2023 (421 days).
“Before this, the system had been stable despite the challenges posed by zero spinning reserve and lack of System Control and adequate Data Acquisition (SCADA) essential to a strong and stable grid, among others.
“TCN has been able to maintain 400 days of grid stability because it developed and deployed in-house stop-gap measures and tools that it has continued to use to manage the nation’s grid, ensuring its stability.
“TCN is determined to continue to do its best to ensure grid stability.
“Meanwhile, the collapse that occurred after a fire incident on Kanji/Jebba 330kV line 2 is being investigated, with the view to forestalling future occurrence and invariably further strengthening the grid.”