TCN Restores National Grid
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has completed the restoration of the national grid which collapsed on Wednesday.
The national grid experienced system disturbance at approximately 11.27 a.m. on July 20, 2022, according to a statement from TCN by its general manager, Ndidi Mbah. The incident was caused by a sudden drop in system frequency from 49.94Hz to 47.36Hz, which led to system instability, the statement continued.
According to reports obtained from the National Control Centre (NCC), it was precipitated by the tripping of a Unit (with a load of 106 MW) in one of the generating stations due to “Exhaust over Temperature”.
According to Ms. Mbah, this unwholesome incident, which disconnected other grid-connected Units from the plant, contributed to an overall 457MW loss in generation. The national grid collapsed as a result of the chain of events that followed.
She further noted that “as obtainable in all systems, when a component of the electric power system is defective, the entire configuration is vitiated. However, inspite of setbacks encountered at the initial stage, grid restoration had almost been completed as at 11:00pm when this report was filed.”
The General Manager of Nigerian Electricity Supply said the industry is committed to leveraging the concerted interventions instituted thus far to improve power supply reliability so that the problem of system collapse will quickly become a thing of the past while appreciating the kind understanding of Government and consumers of electricity both inside and outside the nation.
Ms. Mbah claimed that a thorough inquiry is ongoing to determine the reason for this failure.
Earlier, Empired had exported that the major electricity distribution companies (DisCos) have, in a message to customers, on Wednesday said the national grid collapsed at 11:27 a.m. Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) alerted consumers yesterday, blaming the outage on the collapse.
The DisCo tweeted: “Dear customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the national grid at precisely 11:27 a.m. today, July 20. We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline. We will keep you updated on the situation.”
On June 13, the national grid suffered a system failure. The grid has been forcefully shut down over 140 times since the Federal Government privatised the power sector.
