… Number of total collapse hit nine in eight months
The National Electricity Transmission System also known as power grid suffered a major collapse on Friday, plunging the country into blackout.
The collapse, which is the ninth system failure between January and August, 2019, was confirmed on Twitter by Distribution companies (Discos) whose coverage areas were rocked by the blackout.
Ikeja Electric said on its Twitter page on Friday that the collapse had resulted to outage in all its network coverage areas.
“Dear Valued Customer, there is presently power outage due to system collapse from the grid affecting all areas. Thank you for your understanding” the company’s tweet read.
This position was also corroborated by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) on its twiiter page.
“The present power outage is due to system collapse from the grid affecting all areas. Supply to be restored soon. Please bear with us,” the EKEDC said on its Twitter page.
Although the grid was later restored, Lagos and major cities in the country suffered blackout for more than six hours.
The nation’s power grid, it would be recalled, recorded its eighth total collapse in July, plunging consumers across the country into blackout for some hours.
The government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which manages the grid, blamed electricity distribution companies for the system failure, which it said occurred in the morning.
The grid suffered four total collapses in January and one each in February, April and May, according to the system operator.
Announcing the collapse, which occurred in July, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc had announced on its Twitter handle in July that “the present loss of supply in the entire South-East is as a result of a system collapse which occurred at 09.21 am of today, 30th June, 2019.”
“This is as a result of a fire outbreak on Benin 330KV transmission line reactor. As a result of this unfortunate development, there is zero supply to all customers in our franchise areas as all our injection substations are affected,” it added.
Another Disco, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc, also informed its customers about the system failure from the national grid.
“We are currently experiencing a system collapse from the national grid, hence the power outage in our franchise states. Normal supply to our customers will resume as soon as the national grid is back up and stable,” it said on Twitter.
The TCN, in a statement, said that the system collapsed due to high voltage following a massive drop of load by the electricity distribution companies.
