Nationwide Blackout Averted As TCN Swiftly Restores Grid After Partial System Collapse

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has recovered the grid from partial system collapse on Sunday, 23 August, 2021.

A statement by the TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, said the incident which occured at about 1.06 pm Sunday, “followed a sudden drop in system frequency from 50.18Hz to 47.63Hz that caused system instability and consequently the collapse of a part of the national grid.”

However, She noted in a statement Monday that the partial system disturbance did not affect parts of the grid such as Afam Complex, Alaoji, Ikot Ekpene, Odukpani, and Calabar axis, which means that electricity supply to these areas was not interrupted by the incident,

“According to reports from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) readings and some substations, control panel readings by System Operators showed that some units from a particular generating station tripped suddenly, causing an initial loss of 402 megawatts (MW) from the grid network.

“This caused a destabilizing imbalance, which further caused the pulling out a total of 3,560MW from the grid that finally collapsed part of the national grid.

“TCN commenced the immediate recovery of the grid at 1:19pm through Shiroro Generating Station and almost immediately restored electricity to Abuja axis. The Alaoji – Onitsha axis was restored at about the same time as Abuja, while the Shiroro – Mando axis, on the other hand, was restored by 3.42pm. By 6.57pm yesterday, the national grid was fully recovered and operational.

“TCN appreciates the kind understanding of government and electricity consumers within the affected areas and notes that it is consistently executing projects geared towards putting in place a very robust grid. It is equally pursuing a nationwide SCADA implementation that would further contribute to grid stability”, the statement said.