National Grid

In compliance with the joint directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to down tools on Monday over the new minimum wage, electricity workers have shut down the National Grid, resulting in nationwide blackout.

This was disclosed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, on Monday morning.

TCN said workers were driven away from their duty posts while others were beaten and wounded at some power facilities. It added that all its efforts at grid recovery were being frustrated by the unionists.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the Labour Union has shut down the national grid, resulting in black out nationwide. The national grid shut down occured at about 2.19am this morning, 3rd June 2024.

“At about 1:15am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero.

“Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.

“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am.

“At about 3.23am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. The situation is such that the labour Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.

“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” TCN stated.

The Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu has disclosed what led to the collapse of the national grid in the early hours of Thursday, September 14, 2023, resulting in a power outage.

He said there was a fire outbreak at the Kainji/Jebba line, that led to a sharp drop in the frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06 hrs. These stations are the key player in the power supply chain,

Adelabu said, “At 00:35Hrs this morning, a fire outbreak with an 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 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW. Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07Hrs to zero.

“At 00:41Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41 Hz resulting in system collapse of the grid. We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress.”

Adelabu however noted that the outbreak has been taken care of, while noting that the delay in addressing the grid collapse was deliberate.

He said, “The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time. My sincere appreciation to those who responded or expressed concern via different channels and the team of Engineers for their prompt response to the situation and the work done so far.

“Let’s get the restoration work completed as soon as possible. The delay in the update was deliberate, so as not to cause panic and to also be able to update on the progress of remedial actions taken so far. This is to ensure economic and security saboteurs don’t take advantage of every situation reported.”

Also, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) revealed the gradual recovery of the grid across the country as the fire was contained.