29th March, 2024
By Constance Athekame
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has attributed the collapse of the national grid which threw the entire country into darkness on Thursday to gas constraints.
Mrs Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager Public Affairs revealed that while announcing the restoration of the grid in a statement in Abuja on Friday.
Mbah said that a report from the National Control Centre (NCC) in Osogbo indicated that the collapse of the grid was triggered by a significant reduction in generation capacity, primarily due to gas constraints.
“This reduction led to a rapid decline in system frequency. This created a sudden imbalance in the grid.
“The imbalance in grid stability was exacerbated by the sudden tripping of Egbin generation turbine 3, resulting in an additional loss of 167MW load and the subsequent collapse of the grid,” she said.
She said the disturbance occurred at 4:28 p.m on Thursday with full recovery of the grid achieved by 10:00 p.m. same day.
According to Mba, the grid had since been recovered and was stable, adding that it was currently transmitting all the generated power to distribution load centres nationwide.
She expressed TCN’ s unwavering commitment to addressing grid challenges and actively working to mitigate disruptions.
“In instances where challenges extend beyond TCN’s control, the company collaborates with other stakeholders in the power sector value chain to minimise the impact, and swiftly restore the grid to normal operation,” she said.
(NAN)