TCN: Why national grid collapsed

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has explained the reasons behind the collapse of the national grid.

The national grid collapsed at about 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 6, 2024, leading to a nationwide blackout.

The TCN, in a statement issued by its General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, on Sunday, July 7, said the grid collapse was caused by the tripping of three power station units.

Mbah noted that the national grid has been restored after what she described as a partial disturbance on Saturday.

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The TCN spokesperson stated: “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 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.

“Meanwhile, the System Operator reacted to the sudden drop in generation which led to a dip in frequency, by islanding a section of the grid which includes the Ibom Power Station through which the company continued to feed Uyo, Aba, Itu, Eket, Calabar e.t.c even when the other section of the grid had no supply.

“Also, the operators commenced grid restoration efforts immediately after the incident. At about 21.57 hours yesterday, the entire part of the grid that was affected by yesterday’s  incident  was successfully restored.”

The national grid collapsed for the first time in 2024 on February 4 followed by a nationwide outage on March 28 and another system collapse on April 15.

The Star