National Grid Crashes To Zero Megawatts, 7th Time In 2022

The electricity national grid on Monday suffered another system collapse and forced blackouts across the country for the 7th time since the beginning of 2022.

According to the information from the System Operations, only a section of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Afam IV, was on the grid but with zero supply as of 12noon.

As of Sunday, the highest generation was 4,100MW while the lowest was 3,652MW with the frequency hovering between 49.04 Hertz (Hz) and 50.34Hz.

Since July 1 this year, consumers said power supply had increased in their various areas.

For instance, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) recently confirmed an increment in its daily allocation to over 500MW from the actual 300MW it had distributed before then.

Though the national grid had not crossed 5,000MW, Daily Trust observed that level of load rejection especially around the DisCos’ networks had dropped significantly with some customers entitled to a five-hour supply, recording over 12 hours daily.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had attributed the improvement in power supply nationwide to the partial activation of contracts that seeks to hold sector operators liable for deliberate incompetence.

According to records, this is the seventh system collapse this year, much more than the three recorded last year.

Although TCN, the national grid manager was yet to establish the cause of the crash, some insiders said it could be as a result of maintenance of the 330 kilovolts Jos – Bauchi transmission line maintenance slated for Monday.

Some DisCos including Kaduna Electric, Enugu, and Kano, had already communicated the nationwide outage to their customers noting that efforts were ongoing to restore the supply

While some collapses lasted briefly and were not made public, many others that lasted days were announced. It is unclear how many states are affected by today’s grid collapse.

The National Electricity Distribution Company blamed the incessant collapse on inadequate gas supply, maintenance of thermal stations as well as vandalism of power infrastructure and gas pipelines, promising improved power supply from July 1, 2022.

Related: Restoration of National Grid After Collapse Almost Ready, Says TCN

However, despite the promises made by the regulatory commission to address the issue of grid collapse, Nigeria has continued to struggle with grid collapses.

Recall that Dukat Ayuba, the North-west zonal organizing secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) once described the privatization of the power sector as a scam, explaining that nine years after, nothing has changed to improve its activities.

While announcing plans to resume the union’s industrial action, Mr Ayuba noted that “The investors are still operating with obsolete equipment dating back to 35, 40, and 50 years.”