Darkness in major cities as Nigeria’s electricity grid collapses again

Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed again, on Tuesday, throwing several cities into darkness.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in a statement by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, on Tuesday announced that the grid experienced a partial disturbance at about 1:52 p.m.

Ms Mbah explained that this followed a series of lines and generator trippings that caused instability of the grid and, consequently, the partial disturbance of the system.

“The data from the National Control Centre (NCC) revealed that a part of the grid was not affected by the bulk power disruption,” she said.

She noted that the TCN engineers are already working to quickly restore bulk power supply to the states affected by the partial disturbance.

She said bulk power supply had been restored to Abuja, at 2.49 p.m.

“We are gradually restoring to other parts of the country. We sincerely apologise for every inconvenience this may cause our electricity customers,” she said.

In recent years, the power sector has experienced many challenges in areas of electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and significant power sector planning shortfalls.

READ ALSO: TCN restores electricity to seven northern states, others remain

In November 2013, the federal government privatised all power generation and 11 distribution companies, with the government retaining the ownership of the transmission company. This was to improve efficiency in the sector.

However, since the privatisation, the grid has continued to collapse amid efforts to reposition the power sector.