National power grid suffers total system collapse

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, says it is investigating the cause of the collapse of the power transmission grid on Wednesday morning, which threw the country into darkness.

In a statement issued by the TCN's General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, obtained by Timeline.ng, the TCN explained that "...at about 11.01 am today, 12th of May, 2021, there was a total system collapse of the grid, as a result of voltage collapse at some parts of the grid.

"TCN commenced grid recovery immediately after the collapse, from Shiroro Generating Station to Katampe TS, Abuja through the Shiroro - Katampe line at 11:29 am, and also through Delta Generating Station to Benin Transmission Substation and has reached Osogbo and parts of Lagos.

"While the grid restoration and power restoration gradually progress to other parts of the country, the cause of voltage collapse that precipitated this failure is equally being investigated.

Three of the electricity distribution companies has gone ahead to immediately allay the fears of customers.

Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC had earlier tweeted via their Twitter handle, "Good day, please be informed that we are currently experiencing a grid system outage which has affected supply to our franchise area.

"Normal supply will be restored as soon as we receive more allocation from the national grid. We regret the inconvenience caused."

Similarly, a post by Kaduna Electric on Twitter read: "We regret to inform you that the power outage currently being experienced across our franchise 'Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states is as a result of the collapse of the national grid."

Also, Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc, in a message to its customers appealed to customers to be patient with them.

The tweet read: "Dear customer, there is a partial system collapse on the national grid. Our TCN partners are working to restore supply immediately. Please bear with us." 

The TCN in its statement assured that work was ongoing to restore supply nationwide.

"TCN appeals for patience as it works assiduously to ensure full restoration of the grid and consequently power supply to the remaining parts of the country," the statement added.