…Power restoration in progress—TCN
A fire outbreak with an explosive sound was responsible for the total grid system collapse experienced in the early morning of today across the country.
According to the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu in a statement on his X (Twitter) handle, a fire outbreak with an explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning.
This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.
Kainji Power station followed suit as it started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07Hrs to zero
“At 00:41Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41Hz then resulted in system collapse of the grid.”
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in supporting the Minister’s statement in a press release stated: “The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, hereby notes that grid restoration nationwide is in progress and has reached advanced stages with power supply now available in the West, North Central, South, East, and a large portion of the Northern parts of the country.”
“The power supply restoration is sequel to the total grid collapse, which occurred at about 12.35 am, this morning, causing outage nationwide, after over 421 days of consistent grid stability.”
The press release which was signed Ndidi Mbah, general manager, Public Affairs, TCN,stated that In the course of the grid restoration, the process initially suffered a setback; this does not amount to another collapse. In the course of any grid restoration process, challenges may be encountered. This happened today while the grid restoration was in progress, but it was promptly addressed.
“It would be recalled that the last total system collapse recorded was on 20th July 2022, and since then, to the 13th of September, 2023, (421 days). Prior to this, the system had been stable in spite of the challenges posed by zero spinning reserve and lack of System Control and lack of adequate Data Acquisition (SCADA) essential to a strong and stable grid, among others”
“TCN had been able to maintain 400 days of grid stability because it developed and deployed in-house stop-gap measures and tools that it has continued to use to manage the nation’s grid, ensuring its stability.”
“ The incident notwithstanding, TCN is determined to continue to do its best to ensure grid stability.
Meanwhile, the collapse that occurred after a fire incident on Kanji/Jebba 330kV line 2 is being investigated, with the view to forestalling future occurrences and invariably further strengthening the grid.”
