Incessant grid collapse as national embarrassment

Incessant national grid collapse in the country has become a national embarrassment, just as the state of the power sector itself.

Last week, the country suffered another grid collapse at a time many were preparing for the Easter holidays.

Although the grid has been totally restored, according to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the effects are very damaging as the whole country was thrown into total darkness.

Last year, the national grid collapsed three times – September 14, 19 and December 11. We are at it again this year, the second time in three months. The last one happened on Thursday, March 28 at about 4 pm.

This time, power dropped from an embarrassing 2,984 megawatts (MW) to zero within just an hour as all the 21 plants connected to the grid simply packed up by 5 pm.

Attributing the development to what it described as a ”system disturbance’’ TCN, in a statement signed by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said the grid was fully restored at about 10pm same Thursday.

Mbah told curious Nigerians that a report from the National Control Centre (NCC) in Osogbo, Osun State, showed that the “system disturbance” was caused by a significant reduction in generation capacity, primarily due to gas constraints.

“This reduction led to a rapid decline in system frequency. This created a sudden imbalance in the grid. The imbalance in grid stability was exacerbated by the sudden tripping of Egbin generation turbine 3, resulting in an additional loss of 167MW load and the subsequent collapse of the grid,” she said.

She added that the grid has since been recovered, stable and currently transmitting all the generated power to distribution load centres nationwide.

“TCN emphasises its unwavering commitment to addressing grid challenges and actively working to mitigate disruptions. In instances where challenges extend beyond TCN’s control, the company collaborates with other stakeholders in the power sector value chain to minimise the impact and swiftly restore the grid to normal operation,” TCN added in the statement.

It is sad and shameful that despite the huge sums of money and resources pumped into the power sector over the years, all we could boast of in this age and time is an abysmal 2,984 MW for a country of over 220 million people.

We therefore call on the Federal Government to declare a total state of emergency in the power sector as Nigerians cannot continue to be fed with all the cock and bull stories coming from TCN which cannot manage less than 3,000MW in a country as huge as Nigeria.