The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced on Sunday that it has fully restored the national electricity grid following a collapse that occurred on Saturday, plunging several cities into darkness.
Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager of Public Affairs, disclosed in a statement that the partial disturbance of the grid was triggered by the unexpected tripping of three units at a power generating station.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) hereby states that there was a partial disturbance of the grid at about 15:09 hrs yesterday, 6th July, 2024. The system disturbance, which brings to three, the partial grid disturbances, with one total disturbance this year, is suspected to have been triggered by the unexpected tripping of three (3) units of a power generating station, which suddenly removed 313MW from the grid, causing system instability that led to the loss of bulk supply to a section of the national grid,” Ms. Mbah said.
Several of the nation’s distribution companies informed their customers that the collapse occurred around 3:10 p.m., affecting power supply in their respective franchise areas.
The TCN explained that the system operator reacted to the sudden drop in generation, which caused a dip in frequency, by islanding a section of the grid. This section included the Ibom power station, which continued to feed Uyo, Aba, Itu, Eket, and Calabar even while the other section of the grid had no supply.
“Also, the operators commenced grid restoration efforts immediately after the incident. At about 21:57 hrs yesterday, the entire part of the grid that was affected by today’s incident was successfully restored,” Ms. Mbah added.
