Blackout Worsens As National Grid Suffers Second Collapse Within 48 Hours

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The PUNCH reports that Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed around 5pm on Tuesday, which was less barely 48 hours after it collapsed on Monday, a development that caused widespread darkness across the country.

Power distribution companies again alerted their customers about the collapse, as it was gathered that the meeting summoned by the Federal Government on Monday over issues in the sector, had to drag on till late night on Tuesday.

The grid collapse further prolonged the blackouts witnessed across the country, amidst the current energy crisis in the petroleum sector in Nigeria.

In a public announcement to its customers on Tuesday, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company described the collapse of the grid as total.

It said, “Dear esteemed customers, we regret to inform you of a total system collapse on the national grid at 1709hours of today Tuesday, March 15, 2022 leading to outages across our network.

“We are closely monitoring the situation with our TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria) partners and will keep you updated on the situation. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.”

Also, the Head, Corporate Communications, Ikeja Electric Plc, Mr Felix Ofulue, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

Eko Electricity Distribution Company also confirmed the partial collapse of the grid in a public notice.

Power distributors said the collapse had disrupted power supply within their networks as customers were experiencing blackouts nationwide.

In a notice to power users in its franchise area, Eko Disco said, “Dear esteemed customers, we would like to inform you of another system collapse on the national grid which occurred at 5:10pm today (Tuesday).

“We are monitoring the situation and will continue to provide updates. Once again we apologise for the inconvenience.”

Industry sources stated that at the time of second on Tuesday, no power generation company was supplying electricity on the grid.

They stated that latest grid collapse was multiple, especially from the gas-fired power plants, adding efforts were made to supply electricity to the Federal Capital Territory using the hydro-power plants in Niger State.

Also, sources at the ministry blamed the activities of vandals for the loss in power generation, stressing that some gas pipelines had been ruptured and that this had also prevented the flow of gas to thermal power plants.

On the meeting summoned on Monday by the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, it was gathered that it went on till past midnight on Monday and continued till past 10pm on Tuesday when this report was filed in.