Minister of Power, Adelabu
The collapse of the national grid has been attributed to a fire outbreak on the Kainji-Jebba 330 kilovolt (kV) line.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who made this disclosure in a series of posts on X, on Thursday, said the fire led to a loss of about 356.63 MW.
Recall that the national grid suffered a total system collapse for the first time in more than a year.
Giving updates, Adebulu said the fire has been fully arrested, and with over half of the connections restored.
He posted on X: “At 00:35 Hrs this morning, fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29 Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06 Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63 MW.
“Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07 Hrs to zero. At 00:41 Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41 Hz, then resulted in system collapse of the grid. We are on top of the situation, and speedy restoration is in progress.”
Adelabu said the delay in providing an update was deliberate to ensure economic and security saboteurs don’t take advantage of the reported situation.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced on Thursday that grid restoration nationwide is in progress and has reached advanced stages with power supply now available in the West, North Central, South, East, and a large portion of the Northern parts of the country.
TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah in a statement disclosed that the restoration process of the grid initially suffered a setback but was promptly addressed.
“In the course of the grid restoration, the process initially suffered a setback; this does not amount to another collapse. In the course of any grid restoration process, challenges may be encountered. This happened today while the grid restoration was in progress, but it was promptly addressed,” Mbah stated.
Mbah also stated that the last total system collapse recorded was on 20th July 2022, from then to the 13th of September, (421 days), the system had been stable despite the challenges posed by zero spinning reserve and lack of adequate System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) essential to a strong and stable grid, among others.
She added that TCN has been able to maintain 421 days of grid stability because it developed and deployed in-house stop-gap measures and tools that it has continued to use to manage the nation’s grid, ensuring its stability.
Meanwhile, the collapse which occurred after a fire incident on Kanji/Jebba 330kV line 2 is being investigated, with the view to forestalling future occurrences and invariably further strengthening the grid.
The incident notwithstanding, TCN is determined to continue to do its best to ensure grid stability.
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