Emerging data released by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) indicates that the National Electricity Grid collapsed six times within eight days in January, 2018. The generation statistics of the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, an arm of the TCN disclosed that the national grid collapsed six times between January 1 and January 8.
Speaking on the reasons for the grid collapses, the Chief Executive Officer, TCN, Usman Mohammed, at a recent event in Abuja, stated that there was a need for adequate investment in order to stabilise the grid.
“There are certain things that need to be put in place for us to have grid stability and one of them is that we need to put in adequate investment. One of the key investments that we need to do quickly is that we need to build another line between Benin and Omotosho.
“When we do that, we think that we will be able to stabilise the grid, because 70 per cent of the instability we have is between Lagos and Benin. This, of course, is because we have so many generation stations located on that axis.”
of the An analysis statistics by Punch showed that the country’s power generation crashed from 3,667.5 megawatts on January 1, 2018, to 5.0MW on January 2, which was the first system collapse in the year.
The report stated that the second grid collapse occurred on January 3, as power generation on that day was 51MW, moving up to 2,660.1MW the following day.
On January 5, the grid collapsed for the third time to 107MW. Three other grid collapses were recorded on January 6, 7 and 8, as the country’s power generation dropped to 173MW, 164.2MW and 72MW, respectively.
Findings showed that peak power generation during the eight-day period hovered between 3,707.2MW and 4,982.7MW, but these figures were not sustained as the grid kept collapsing.
