Figures obtained on Monday from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, an arm of the Federal Government’s power transmission company, showed that the national electricity grid actually crashed from a peak of 3,703 megawatts to as low as 9MW on Sunday.
Nigeria witnessed widespread blackout on Sunday after the national grid collapsed around 6.49pm, before engineers from the Transmission Company of Nigeria strived to ensure the recovery of the grid.
It was gathered on Monday that Sunday’s grid collapse was the fifth in 2022, a development that made many power distribution companies to shut down their various outgoing electricity feeders.
Data sourced from the NESO on Monday in Abuja, which showed the performance of the national grid on Sunday, indicated that the peak generation on Sunday of 3,703MW was recorded at 5am.
But this crashed to 9MW at 7pm on Sunday, according to the NESO, leading to the eventual collapse of the national grid.
Various Discos including Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, among others, had confirmed the grid collapse in various messages on Sunday night.
Although no official statement from TCN as per the grid collapse yet, it was gathered that its restoration reached an advanced stage on Monday, as power generation rose to 2,744.6MW around 6am on Monday.
Nigeria’s power grid had collapsed twice in March and twice again in April this year. Power generation on the system had continued to fluctuate due to various concerns such as gas constraints, water management challenges, gas pipeline vandalism, among others.
Following the instability in Nigeria’s power supply, experts and consumer groups in the sector urged politicians to desist from generating political megawatts as they woo voters ahead of the 2023 general elections.
