Again, Nigeria Hit by Third Electricity Grid Collapse in 2024

TCN blames fire outbreak, says power fully restored

The national electricity grid yesterday collapsed for the third time in 2024, again throwing the nation into total blackout.

It was learnt that the grid collapsed around 2:42 am on Monday, with generation dropping to as low as 64.70mw.

After the grid collapsed, Ibom Power was the only plant online, according to available data from the Independent System Operator (ISO) under the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

There had been a lot of pressure on Discos recently to meet their obligations to Band A customers , which is believed to have put pressure on Nigeria’s fragile national grid.

However, the TCN said yesterday that the disturbance was caused by an inferno which occurred at the Afam V 330kV plant.

A number of the Distribution Companies (Discos) apologised to their customers, blaming the grid collapse for the outage.

“The current outage being experienced within our franchise states is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid.

"The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred in the early hours at about 02.42 hours today, Monday, April 15, 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders,” the Jos Disco’s head of Corporate Affairs, Dr Friday Adakole, said.

By 12 noon, the total generation by the active plants, had however risen to over 700mw, meaning that the problem was being gradually fixed and at about 6pm had climbed to 2,490mw, still far below the 4,500mw daily supply.

In the same vein , Abuja Disco appealed for understanding from its customers , stressing that efforts were on to fix the problem.

“Dear valued customers, please be informed that the current power outage is due to a system failure from the national grid. The system collapsed at about 02:41 hours today Monday 15th, April 2024.

“We appeal for your understanding as all stakeholders are working hard to restore normal supply. Meantime, gradual restoration has started,” AEDC stated.

But hours later yesterday, the TCN announced the full restoration of the national grid, following what it said was a fire incident at the Afam power generating station, which caused a partial disturbance of the nation’s grid.

“At 02:41Hrs today, 15th April 2024, a fire erupted at the Afam V 330kV bus bar coupler, leading to the tripping of units at Afam III and Afam VI. This resulted in a sudden generation loss of 25mw and 305mw respectively, destabilising the grid and causing a partial collapse.

“During the incident, the Ibom Power plant was isolated from the grid and was supplying parts of the Port Harcourt Region. This further minimised the effect of the system disturbance.

“TCN confirms that the affected section of the grid has been fully restored and stabilised,” a statement signed by the company’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said.

TCN reaffirmed its commitment to enhancing the resilience and reliability of the national grid and pledged to continue investing in measures aimed at strengthening the grid infrastructure.