Power Grid Collapses 6 Times In 8 Days

The national electricity grid collapsed six times within a period of eight days this month, latest data from the Transmission Company of Nigeria has revealed .

According to the generation statistics of the Nigeria Electricity System Operator , an arm of the TCN , the national grid collapsed six times between January 1 and January 8 .

An analysis of the statistics , which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Monday , showed that the country’ s power generation crashed from 3 , 667 . 5 megawatts on January 1 , 2018 , to 5 . 0 MW on January 2 , which was the first system collapse in the year .

The second grid collapse occurred on January 3 , as power generation on that day was 51MW . This moved up to 2 , 660 . 1 MW the following day.

But on January 5 , the grid collapsed for the third time to 107 MW .

Three other grid collapses were recorded on January 6 , 7 and 8 , as the country’s power generation dropped to 173 MW , 164 . 2 MW and 72 MW , respectively .

Findings showed that peak power generation during the eight - day period hovered between 3 , 707 . 2 MW and 4 , 982 . 7 MW , but these figures were not sustained as the grid kept collapsing.
It was observed that 2 , 596 . 2 MW of electricity was generated on January 27 , which was the most recent power generation figure released by the NESO on Monday afternoon .

The poor power generation on January 27 was due to gas constraint , which prevented the production of over 2 , 321 . 8 MW of electricity.

Explaining 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.

He said , “ 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 . ”