Why national power grid keeps collapsing – FG panel
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Disclosing this was the Chairman of the investigative committee probing reasons for grid collapse, Nafisatu Asabe. She said this during a report presentation at the Ministry of Power headquarters on Wednesday in Abuja.
Poor maintenance culture, inadequate and aged equipment, vandalism of the power infrastructure, among other things, have been identified as part of the reasons for frequent collapses of the national power grid in Nigeria.
Disclosing this was the Chairman of the investigative committee probing reasons for grid collapse, Nafisatu Asabe. She said this during a report presentation at the Ministry of Power headquarters on Wednesday in Abuja.
On the grid collapse incident that occurred on October 14 and 19, Asabe said, the situation was caused by the shattering of lightning arrestors in Jebba and Oshogbo transmission stations.
She said, “For the event on the 14th, lightning arrestors in Jebba and Oshogbo shattered. The one in Jebba was for the shunt reactor and this was caused by high voltage. Subsequently, we had the tripping of multiple 330kV lines. It kept going until it became major.
“The remote cause of that is the unavailability of the second reactor in Jebba, and that is because Jebba, by the design of the network and sometimes the topology of the network at a particular time is very prone to high voltage.
“We had two shunt reactors in Jebba before this event, however, one packed up. It is faulty, and so the voltage rose to about 400KV, which is beyond the threshold. High voltage degrades equipment insulation.
“If you expose equipment to high voltages for a long time, it degrades the insulation. And, of course, there’s a risk of failure. So, that was a remote cause for that. But the underlying causes are aged equipment. In our findings, we confirmed that Jebba was commissioned in 1968. Some of the equipment was commissioned alongside the substation. So, aged equipment. And maintenance culture is also an issue.”
In his response, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, said the incessant collapses of the power grid was worrisome to him. He, however, expressed the hope that the situation would improve with the implementation of far-reaching reforms in the sector.
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