Blackout as power grid collapse three times in 18 hours
The prevailing power blackout In Nigeria may last longer than expected as the national electricity grid collapsed three times in less than 24 hours.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company Thursday evening confirmed that there was a total system collapse of the Transmission Company of Nigeria national grid on Wednesday afternoon and again collapsed twice on Thursday.
While confirming that there was a grid collapse on Wednesday, EKEDC said “there was system collapse again today 09/05/2019 at 0527hrs but Supply came back with limited allocation at 0932hrs.”
“Sadly, there was another system collapse @ 1436hrs this afternoon and still no supply till this moment,” it added.
Although the causes of the power failure are still unknown, the distribution company said, the “TCN are working on rectifying root cause(s) of the frequent system collapse(s)”
The National Control Centre confirmed the system collapse on Wednesday. It, however, did not state if it was partial or total. What caused the problem was also not stated.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, a total system collapse means total blackout nationwide, while partial system collapse is a failure of a section of the grid.
Kano Electricity Distribution Company, which serves Kano, Katsina and Jigawa, said in a statement on Thursday that the collapsed meant it has zero megawatts to distribute to consumers.
“As the national grid collapsed for the third time in two days, living KEDCO with no power to share,” KEDCO spokesman Mohammed Kandi said.
“The grid crashed again at exactly 2:24pm on Thursday, thereby forcing KEDCO coverage areas to deal with zero Megawatts,” he added.
Zero megawatts were also allocated to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company on Monday, its spokesman Oyebode Fadipe said. Fadipe said the Transmission Company of Nigeria was already working to restore power generation.
We hope that the situation would improve in the coming hours, given the efforts by officials of Transmission Company of Nigeria to restore normalcy at the grid,” Fadipe told News Agency of Nigeria.
Credit: The Guardian
