The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Tuesday afternoon confirmed grid collapse, saying that the recovery has reached advanced stage even as reports from the South East of Nigeria indicates total blackout still prevails.
Though, TCN claimed that “the national grid experienced a partial disturbance, on Monday, 14th October, 2024 at about 6:48 pm”, but it gave no further details on the probable cause of the disturbance.
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) had early Tuesday morning informed its “customers of a general system collapse that occurred at 18:48 hours today, 14th October, 2024. This has resulted in the loss of supply currently being experienced across EEDC network.”
OPTIMUM TIMES recalled that Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TCN, Engr Abdulaziz Sule, had months ago appealed to the National Assembly for its intervention for proper funding of its ongoing critical projects meant for efficient power transmission nationwide.
He made the appeal while making presentations on ongoing projects, achievements and challenges of the company to the members of the House of Representatives Committee on Power led by its Chairman, Hon. Victor Nwokolo who where on oversight visit to Corporate Headquarters of the TCN.
He lamented that its 129 ongoing critical projects which requires a total finding sum of N1,791, 849, 390, 455. 49 have an outstanding funding shortfall of N637, 372, 812, 594. 89 there hindering its prompt completion and efficient service delivery.
Engr. Sule explained that most of the transmission infrastructure are outdated and requires replacement and expansion to meet growing demands of the increasing electricity consumers in the country.
The TCN General Manager Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, who confirmed the system collapse in a statement assured that efforts to fully recover the grid is still ongoing.
According to her, “Although the recovery of the grid commenced immediately, with Azura power station providing the blackstart, grid recovery reached advanced stages at about 10.24am, today when it encountered a challenge that caused a slight setback in the recovery process.
“The slight setback notwithstanding, TCN continued with the grid recovery process, which has reached an advanced stage, ensuring bulk power availability to about 90% of its substations nationwide. Supply has been restored to the Abuja axis and other major distribution load centers nationwide.
“The partial disturbance did not affect the Ibom Gas generating station which was islanded from the grid yesterday, and continued to supply areas in the South Southern part of the country such as Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and Itu 132kV transmission Substations during the period.
“Investigation into the cause of the incident will be carried out as soon as the grid is fully restored.”
In a notice of general system collapse to its customers, the EEDC Head, Corporate Communications, Emeka Ezeh said that “due to this development, all our interface TCN stations are out of supply, and we are unable to provide services to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States.
“We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre (NCC), Osogbo.”
