The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Thursday blamed a fire incident on its Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 for the electricity national grid collapse that led to a total blackout across the country.
The power outage which lasted over eight hours left homes and businesses without public power supply.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Ndidi Mbah in a statement in Abuja said recovery of the grid has reached an advanced stage.
She explained 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 Northern parts of the country.
“The power supply restoration is 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”.
Mbah added that “in the course of 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”.
She recalled that the “last total system collapse recorded was on 20th July 2022, and since then, to the 13th of September, 2023, (421 days). Prior to this, the system had been stable in spite of the challenges posed by zero spinning reserve and lack of System Control and lack of 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.
“The incident notwithstanding, 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 strengthen the grid”.
In his X (formerly Twitter) handle, the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu, said: “At 00:35Hrs this morning, Fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.”
