The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has addressed reports of a national grid breakdown on Saturday, calling it a “temporary grid disturbance.” This incident marks the third grid failure this week.
The collapse occurred early Saturday morning, resulting in total blackouts across many states. Data from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal (niggrid.org) indicated that the grid registered an unprecedented zero Megawatts (MW) as of 8:16 am. At that time, all 22 generation companies (GenCos) were offline.
This week’s collapse adds to the eight grid disturbances recorded in 2024.
In response, TCN’s General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, explained that a bus section of a current transformer had exploded at the 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation, but assured that power has since been restored.
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“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that the national grid experienced a temporary disturbance at about 8:15 am, today, 19th Oct. 2024.
“According to the report from the NCC, the bus section of a current transformer exploded at 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation and as expected, the protection system was activated, and this promptly opened the busbars to curtail the explosion, thereby preventing outbreak of fire and further damage to adjacent equipment.
“The action of the protection system led to a temporary disturbance on the grid.
“Our engineers at Jebba have successfully carried out switchings, isolating the faulty current transformer. They have equally reconfigured the busbar arrangement, restoring power supply to the station, and other parts of the grid,” the statement read.