The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced the successful restoration of the national power grid following its collapse at 4:28 pm on Thursday, News About Nigeria reports.
In a statement issued on Friday, TCN reported that the grid was not fully recovered by 10 pm on the same day.
Despite the restoration, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company revealed on Friday that it could only receive minimal power supply from the grid, allowing it to put Agbara, Ojo, Akangba, Ajah, Lekki, and Alagbon Transmission Stations on supply.
TCN spokeswoman, Ndidi Mbah, expressed hope that as long as grid restoration activities continue, the power supply will soon return to optimal normalcy.
Mbah explained that the system disturbance resulted from a sharp drop in system frequency and an unexpected imbalance in the grid due to a large fall in generation capacity, mainly due to gas restrictions.
Mbah added that the unexpected tripping of Egbin generating Turbine 3 caused an extra loss of 167 MW of demand and the resulting collapse of the grid, worsening the imbalance in grid stability.
However, she assured that the grid had since been recovered and stabilised, currently transmitting all the generated power to distribution load centres nationwide.
Mbah stressed that TCN works with other participants in the power sector value chain to minimise the effects and quickly return the grid to normal operation in situations where difficulties are outside of its control.
The recent grid collapse adds to the history of such incidents, with Nigeria’s national power grid having collapsed 46 times from 2017 to 2023, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.
Notably, major cities, including Lagos and Abuja, experienced blackout following the collapse on Thursday.
In response to the recurrent grid collapses, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has assured Nigerians that the current power problems will be resolved within the next three to six months.
Adelabu mentioned that gas suppliers, who had refused to supply gas to power-generating companies due to unpaid debts, would start receiving payments in April, which is expected to alleviate the gas constraints affecting power generation.
