The Nigerian government has stated that Saturday’s national grid breakdown was triggered by the explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station around 08:15 a.m.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced this in a statement on Saturday.
Saturday’s grid failure was the third time the system had shut down in the last seven days.
across response, NERC stated that bulk power supply has been considerably restored as of 13:00 hours on Saturday across 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission observes with concern the recent growing incidence of grid disturbances, often resulting to notable outages in multiple states, negating many of the previous advances in decreasing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.
“Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815hrs, followed by a cascade of power plants shutting down due to a loss of load.”
“However, efforts to restore supply have advanced with power significantly restored, as at 1300hrs, in 33 states and the FCT.”
The Commission further stated that, in accordance with the terms of the Electricity Act 2023, the unbundling of System Operator from the Transmission Company of Nigeria is already underway.
“In accordance with the provisions of the Electricity Act 2023, the unbundling of the System Operator function (SO) from Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc is currently underway, with the expectation that an independent SO will lead to greater discipline in grid management and optimized infrastructure investment.
NERC pledged to hold an investigative hearing to find a permanent solution to the national grid’s difficulties.
“In order to find a permanent solution to the national grid’s challenges, the Commission will soon hold an investigative public hearing to identify the immediate and remote causes of recurring grid disturbances and widespread outages.”
“The date and venue of the public hearing will shortly be announced in the national dailies and stakeholders are encouraged to participate” .
TCN agreed with NERC over the cause of the grid failure on Saturday. The power supply has been entirely restored.
according to TCN as well. As anticipated, the protection system was triggered when the bus section of a current transformer exploded at the 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation. This quickly opened the busbars to contain the explosion, preventing a fire from starting and additional damage to nearby equipment, according to a statement released by TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah.
“The protection system’s action caused a brief disruption in the grid.” Remember, the last seven days had seen three collapses of the national grid. The system saw another disruption during the process of repairing Monday’s grid breakdown. Just in this year, the nationwide grid has collapsed at least eight times
