Electricity: National Grid Recovers Slowly after 7th Collapse in 2022

Most businesses and homes were without power for several hours on Monday as Nigeria’s national grid failed for the seventh time this year.

The last national system failure occurred on June 13, 2022, but the system was intentionally shut down last month by protesting electricity workers.

Checks on National System Operator data revealed that the grid, which went down at 10.51 a.m., has begun to recover gradually.

According to NSO data as of 5 p.m., eight power generation plants with a combined output of 849MW had returned to the grid.

The electricity distribution company, DisCos, had earlier in the day notified their customers of the disruption in power supply.

In a notice to its customers, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC, EEDC, informed its “esteemed customers of a system collapse which occurred at 10:51 am today (Monday), 26th September 2022. This has resulted in the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network.

“Due to this development, all our interface TCN stations are out of supply, and we are unable to provide service to our customers in Abia, Anambra,  Ebonyi,  Enugu and the Imo States.

“We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre (NCC), Osogbo”, the statement by Emeka Ezeh, Head, Corporate Communications, stated.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, which manages the grid was yet to advance reasons for the latest collapse at the time of filing this report.

The Executive Director, Networks, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Engr. Ifeoluwa Oyedele said it has become critical for the sector to acquire the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, SCADA, system.

He wrote: “The National Grid is too large geographically. A SCADA System is an absolute must for the efficient operation of the Transmission Network. For the SCADA to function seamlessly it must not be encumbered for any other purpose as this may further complicate the SCADA project”.

Engr. Abraham also stated that attacks on Power towers were another cause, adding that the bush burning around high towers can also create problems in the system.

He however advocated for the automation of the grid system, explaining that currently control most times were manually done.

He said the government needs to build more transmission capacity and then try to tie the lines back.

According to him, most of the lines are overloaded and a trip on any of them can create instabilities that lead to system collapse.

“We need a free governor system that removes manual control. Load imbalance is a huge problem because they are trying to manually balance the system. Our SCADA system is not yet in place so we don’t have an automated system. We therefore cannot balance load effectively.

“We need an automated system that cut off some loads on its own during instability and makes the system more efficient”, he stated.

He pointed out that increasing transmission capacity would create redundancy and allow the system to switch from one line to another with much difficulty.

“Redundancy creates opportunities such that if one line cuts off then you can use the other line. For instance, if Abuja has more than one line supplying its power from Ajaokuta, Lafia and Shiroro, if one goes, the interruption would not have much effect as the other will be deployed.

He called for the appointment of competent people to manage the sector, observing that most times people without the necessary skills were appointed into top positions in the industry. Vanguard

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG