ELECTRICITY: POWER GENERATION CRASHES TO ZERO MEGAWATTS AS GRID COLLAPSES

Read Time:2 Minute, 0 Second

Power generation on the national grid crashed to zero megawatts around 1 pm on Sunday as the country’s grid witnessed a nationwide collapse.

Data obtained from the power ministry showed that electricity generation on the grid dropped from 2,407MW around 11.53 am to 31MW by noon on Sunday, before collapsing to 0MW an hour later.

This led to widespread blackouts across the country, as power distribution companies blamed it on the collapse of the grid managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, an agency of the Federal Government.

Kaduna Disco, for instance, confirmed that the loss of bulk power supply left Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states in darkness on Sunday.

Figures from the TCN showed that all 20 power plants, except Ibom Power with 31 megawatts, were offline by 11:51 am on Sunday.

A previous report on December 12, 2023, says that Nigeria witnessed a system collapse of its national grid, leading to a crash in power generation from 4,032.8MW to 43.5MW the preceding day.

Power generation figures obtained from TCN at the time showed that electricity on the system moved up to 115.4MW around 3 pm on December 11, 2023, before rising further to 240.9MW at about 4 pm.

It climbed to 544.9MW at 5 pm and continued the upward trend, as TCN strived to restore the national.

Commenting on the development at the time, the spokesperson of the transmission company, Ndidi Mbah, confirmed the collapse of the grid but was quick to state that the system was restored by TCN engineers.

“The grid experienced a collapse today (Monday). Presently, it (supply) has been restored except for the Jos axis, which will soon have supply within the hour. The collapse happened by 13.49 pm this afternoon. It is now fully restored by 18.51 pm,” she had stated.

Nigeria’s power grid witnessed a series of collapses in September last year, as power consumers lambasted the managers of the system for the incessant crash of the grid.

On September 20, 2023, Nigeria witnessed another round of widespread blackouts across the country the preceding day as the national power grid collapsed again, making it the third grid collapse in about five days during that period.

This is despite the privatisation of the successor generation and transmission arms of the power sector in November 2013 by the Federal Government.