TCN: Why grid collapse persists in Nigeria

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has given reasons for the persistent collapse of the national electricity grid in the country.

 

The TCN said the nation’s power sector is currently faced with various challenges, impacting effective service delivery and the ongoing collapse of the national grid.

 

Nafisat Ali, the executive director of the Independent System Operator (ISO) department of the TCN, disclosed this during the visit of the Senate Committee on Power on Monday.

 

In recent times, the TCN has reported causes of national grid system collapses, resulting in reduced electricity allocation to electricity distribution companies in the country.

 

Last Monday, Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed yet again, throwing several cities into darkness.

 

The grid collapsed as generation dropped to 64.70 megawatts, officials said.

 

The latest collapse, less than a month after the national grid system collapsed in March, is the third time this year.

 

Speaking on Monday, Ms Ali said the nation had recorded 105 cases of grid collapse from 2015 to April 2024, noting that the cause of the ongoing grid collapse spread across the electricity value chain.

 

“The causes of grid collapse in Nigeria spread across all participants, from generation companies to transmission and distribution. From generation companies, there is the inadequacy of gas supply, improper coordination of plants and gas pipelines, poor generation availability,” Ms Ali said.

 

Under the transmission value chain, she added that lack of operating/spinning reserve and voltage support scheme, lack of reliable SCADA facility, vandalism, tripping of critical infrastructure lines, transition line redundancy and lack of reliable communication facility are the causes for grid collapse.

 

For the distribution companies (DisCos), Ms Ali listed the weak distribution networks, load allocation violation, and lack of visibility on the DisCos network, among others, as the reasons for the unending collapse.

 

“Customers can experience interruptions to their electricity Supply for three reasons such as reliability issues, where there is insufficient generation to meet consumer demand at a place and point in time; system security events and problems with the security of the network and transmission/ distribution network failures,” she said.

 

To achieve a reliable system, she said the system must have an adequate amount of capacity (generation, demand response and network capacity) to meet consumer needs.

 

“There should be adequate investment in all types of capacity, as well as appropriate operational decisions so that supply and demand are in balance at any point in time

 

“To achieve a reliable power system, it is necessary to include a buffer in the supply and demand balance, known as reserves. This allows the actual demand and supply to be kept in balance, even in the face of shocks to the system,” she added.