The Federal Government has stated that it has set up a forensic investigative committee to probe the incessant grid collapses in the country, News About Nigeria reports.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this in a statement issued by his media aide, Bolaji Tunji.
He noted that that he is worried about the disturbance on the national grid which threw some sections of the country into darkness twice within the past week.
Adelabu also expressed displeasure at the incident, which, according to him, is capable of rubbishing the giant strides made in the last year, which has led to an increased generation and distribution of 5,527 megawatts, a record generation in three years.
The statement also revealed that the Minister has summoned the leadership of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to an emergency meeting at the weekend.
The statement reads, “Adelabu constituted a forensic investigation committee with a mandate to advise the government on necessary solutions to make the national grid robust and reliable in addition to the ongoing efforts of the government like the Presidential Power Initiatives and the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project.
“The committee is also to establish the root cause of both incidents, especially a review of potential sabotage on the system.
“In addition, a technical team has been deployed to access the critical nodes on the national grid to identify potential vulnerabilities and proffer recommendations to address these vulnerabilities to prevent future disruptions to the grid.”
Adelabu further noted that there was a partial collapse on Monday, October 14, due to a line trip at the Jebba Transmission Substation and a recurring fault at the Osogbo Transmission Substation.
According to him, efforts to restore the grid further resulted in a setback the following day, saying the system was, however, fully restored on Wednesday, October 16.
“There was no grid collapse on Tuesday, as was widely speculated, as the setback was a continuation of Monday’s restoration efforts on the grid.
“Also what was described on Saturday, October 19, as grid collapse was a deliberate protective shutdown of the grid as a result of the explosion of the Jebba transformer. And this was restored within two hours. What we had were more grid disturbances than collapses,” he added.
