, has announced plans to investigate the recent power grid disturbances that occurred on Monday and Tuesday.){kind=link}
The Federal Government, through the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has announced plans to investigate the recent power grid disturbances that occurred on Monday and Tuesday.
This move follows comments from the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who dismissed reports of a full grid collapse, instead referring to the incident as a “trip-off.”
In a statement, TCN confirmed that the national grid experienced a “partial disturbance” on Monday, with efforts to restore full functionality continuing into Tuesday.
TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah explained that the recovery process began immediately after the disturbance, with the Azura power station initiating the “blackstart” procedure. By 10:24 a.m. on Tuesday, recovery had made significant progress, but a temporary setback hindered further advancement.
Mbah reassured that despite the setback, TCN continued working on restoring the grid, which by Tuesday had achieved about 90 percent recovery, ensuring bulk power availability to most substations across the country.
However, as of 7 p.m. on Tuesday, many areas remained without power, including several regions that continued to experience outages.
Mbah noted that during the disturbance, the Ibom Gas generating station had remained unaffected as it had been isolated from the grid, ensuring uninterrupted power supply to areas in the South-South region, such as Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and Itu 132kV transmission substations.
An investigation into the cause of the partial disturbance will be launched once the grid is fully restored, Mbah added.
Minister Adelabu, speaking with The PUNCH on Tuesday, denied claims of a complete grid collapse, explaining that what occurred was a “trip-off.”
“When we talk about grid collapse, it would involve 100 percent of our grid infrastructure. This was simply a line tripping in certain areas, and even major centers like Abuja, Lagos, and Ibadan were unaffected. The issue was resolved within two hours,” he said.
He emphasized that grid disturbances are not unusual and can be caused by various factors, including weather conditions and aging infrastructure.
“The key is how quickly you respond to resolve it. Grid disturbances are common worldwide, and they can happen due to weather or the deterioration of infrastructure. The most important thing is that we responded swiftly, and within two hours, the system was back online. It’s not a major issue,” Adelabu concluded.