Power Ministry blames vandals, as national grid collapses for fifth time, thrice under 3weeks

National grid for the fifth time in 2022 collapsed, late Friday, leaving cities across the country in darkness.

This is even as distribution companies (DisCos) reluctantly announced the breakdown, after prolonged hours of electricity outage experienced in some parts of the country.

The national grid collapsed late Friday evening, and is yet to be resolved.

This is also the third collapse of the national grid recorded in less than three weeks after two earlier incidents on March 14 and 15, this year.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Power, in an earlier statement issued to explain the situation, Saturday, blamed the present collapse to acts vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani—Ikot Ekpene road.

“The immediate cause of national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation,” the Ministry of Power said.

Another statement, released, same Saturday, by Mr Isa Sanusi, the media aide to the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, informed that ‘a detailed investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the recurring grid failure is currently ongoing.’

 “While a detailed investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the recurring grid failure is currently ongoing by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and System Operator (the operator of the national grid), the process of restoring supply is ongoing with some sections of the national grid already energised and supply restored to consumers.

“We wish to assure Nigerians that the Federal Government is working assiduously to deliver on the much-needed reforms and investments, including SCADA, that are critical to improving the capacity and reliability of the national grid. This is in line with the Mr. President’s directives on closing infrastructure deficits in critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.”

“The immediate cause of national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation,” the Ministry of Power said.

Already, the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company had informed its customers that ‘the management of Kaduna electric regrets to inform you that the current outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to a collapse of the national grid.

“The collapse occurred at about 18:29 pm this evening. Normal power supply shall be restored as soon as the grid is restored.

“We sincerely apologise for all inconveniences,” the spokesperson of the company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi said.

On its part, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company confirmed the collapse on Twitter late Friday Night.

“Please be informed that there has just been a national grid collapse causing an outage in our franchise areas. We apologize for the inconvenience caused and appeal that you bear with us while we await restoration from the TCN. We regret all inconvenience caused,” it said.

The Jos Electricity Distribution Company said the collapse happened at 6:30 p.m. across its distributing states of Bauchi, Benue, Gombe and Plateau.

“Dear customers, there was a loss of supply as a result of the system collapse of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) about 6:30 p.m. across all our franchise states of Bauchi, Benue, Gombe and Plateau,” it said.

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company said: “Dear Esteemed Customers, a planned outage has been scheduled by our TCN partners for Saturday, April 9, 2022 between 9am and 3pm. This is to enable the TCN crew repair a wounded conductor between Tower #9 and #10 on the Ajah/Alagbon 330kV Line.”

The private distribution companies directly supply electricity to consumers and so have the responsibility to let their customers know the reason(s) for the power blackout.

It would be recalled that on March14 and 15, this year, a similar collapse of the national grid occurred which prompted the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, to summon a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, on March 16, to evolve strategies to solving the perennial electricity generation problem in the country.

Fielding questions by State House Correspondents over the Monday and Tuesday collapse of the national grid, the Minister, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu, had explained that factors like vandalisation of equipment played a part, adding that the problem though resolved for now, would be fully addressed.

Aliyu who spoke after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also informed of the restoration of the national grid, said efforts are being made to get more megawatts to put into the grid.

He listed the challenges that contributed to the current power crisis to include the collapse of the grid, scheduled maintenance of facilities, vandalization of pipelines, the disputes around availability of gas as well as payment for gas contracts between gas companies and power generating companies.

“The more reason we are facing the situation now is as a result of the shortage of gas and some of the generators have to go to maintenance.

“It is a scheduled maintenance and it is supposed to be scheduled outage, but we had not envisaged that we will have issues around vandalization of pipelines, which the NNPC has addressed as you can see evidently everywhere, aviation fuel, and petrol in the filling stations. It is a combination of many factors that compounded the problem we are having on the grid.

“We have recovered the grid now. The grid is back and we are trying to get more megawatts to push on the grid. We have set up small committees all geared towards getting more megawatts to put on the grid. Basically, the problem around gas; You need to have gas contract between generating companies and gas suppliers- some are form contracts, some are not. We are looking into this and have proffered some solutions in some few days to mature,” he said.

Aliyu also made clarification on the issue of the quantity of generated electricity in the country, saying “we have capacity of 8,000 megawatts – the one on the grid, imbedded and captive. If you combine all of them, you will get these problems that we are encountering. We are on top of the challenge and very soon, we will come out of it”.