DisCos apologise as national grid collapse hits hard on Nigerians

News Update

THE Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, have apologized to Nigerians, as instability occasioned by national power grid collapse, crippled operations in homes and businesses nationwide.

Nigeria’s weak electricity grid collapsed again on Saturday morning throwing the country into a nationwide blackout.

It is the third time the national power grid has collapsed in the past seven days and the eighth this year.

A check by Vanguard on data supplied by the National System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, showed grid supply was 3,041.72MW as of 8 a.m. before dropping significantly to 47MW by 9 a.m., with only Azura-Edo IPP on the grid.

However, in a notice to its customers, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Eko DisCo, stated: “Kindly be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 19/10/24, at 08:15Hrs, affecting power supply across our network.

“The relevant stakeholders are currently working to effect restoration of supply to all locations affected by this development. Kindly bear with us.”

Checks by Vanguard indicated that other DisCos have also apologized to their customers in different parts of the nation.

On his part, the Director/CEO, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, said: “The frequency of national grid collapse is worrisome and alarming. Energy is critical for business operations and the welfare of the people.

“So, anytime there is grid collapse, it dislocates the activities of citizens and businesses because the cost of alternatives, mostly the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol and diesel are very prohibitive.

“That is why it is very concerning. This is why we need to expedite actions on reforms to decentralize sources of energy so that we do not over-depend on the grid.

“We need to work toward enabling renewable to play increased roles in the nation’s energy mix by removing all forms of taxes and levies. This would go a long way to make the cost of renewable more affordable to Nigerians.”

Also, the spokesperson of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Ndidi Mbah, stated that “the national grid experienced a temporary disturbance at about 8:15 am, today, 19th Oct. 2024.

“According to the report from the National Control Center (NCC), the bus section of a current transformer exploded at 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation and as expected, the protection system was activated, and this promptly opened the busbars to curtail the explosion, thereby preventing an outbreak of fire and further damage to adjacent equipment.

“The action of the protection system led to a temporary disturbance on the grid. Our engineers at Jebba have successfully carried out switching and isolating the faulty current transformer. They have equally reconfigured the busbar arrangement, restoring power supply to the station, and other parts of the grid.”