Blackout as national grid collapses again

Nigeria’s electricity grid has again collapsed leaving parts of the country without power supply.

The grid, operated from Osogbo, Osun State, by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) was said to have failed at about 12:26 pm on Wednesday.

The national electricity grid has failed electricity consumers more than 128 times since the nation’s power sector was privatised in 2013.

Some utility companies had issued public notices about the inability to power consumers due to the challenge.

For instance, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) had said:  “We have been unable to serve our customers in Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states as well as a significant portion of the entire Federal Capital Territory” .

Urging the public for patience and promising to restore power across its franchise area as soon as there was an improvement in load allocation, AEDC said: “only 20MW has been allocated to AEDC as against the over 400MW that we have been receiving in recent times.”

Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), the umbrella body of distribution companies, had earlier blamed the situation on the obsolete, analogue systems being used by the TCN.