Power restored after 24-hour nationwide blackout

Nigeria’s National Power Grid was back up on Monday night, after a total collapse, resulting in 24-hour nationwide blackout.

This is just as the operators of electricity system in Nigeria continue to squabble among themselves over who is dropping the ball.

The latest collapse followed weeks of bickering among operators that have led to poor power generation, transmission and distribution by the Generation Companies (GenCos), Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Distribution Companies (DisCos).

Following the collapse of the National Grid, the Minister of Power Muazu Sambo called an emergency meeting of the operators with government.

The Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) had on Sunday blamed poor management of the grid by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) as one of the factors responsible for low power generation in the country.

This was after the Transmission Company had earlier blamed poor power supply to distribution companies for onward distribution to Nigerians on the inability of the GENCOs to produce sufficient power.

READ: We will continue load-shedding until power generation increases – TCN

TCN warned in its statement that Nigerians would continue to experience load-shedding of electricity until power generation increased.

GenCos said most of their turbines have been damaged by inefficient management of the grid.

APGC Executive Secretary, Mrs Joy Ogaji said: “The GenCos are supposed to start and stop at most 20 times a year but in Nigeria, the GenCos start and stop 365 days every year and this wear and tear are affecting the plants which cause maintenance issues at a time when they should be optimal. “Last year GenCos engaged an expert to investigate these issues, it was found that the ramp down and ramp-up has affected the turbines. For instance, Siemens has told Geregu to shut down the machines because if the start-stop continues it will destroy the three turbines until after maintenance. General Electric has also notified Calabar on a similar issue and awaiting maintenance.”