Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has issued a contrary report on the power blackout across the country, which has been linked to the national grid collapse.
It was reported earlier, across various media outlets, that the national power grid collapsed again on Tuesday amid restoration efforts following the initial collapse on Monday evening.
However, Adelabu has dismissed statin that there was only a trip-off.
He stressed that what happened was a line tripping in certain quarters in the country.
“There was no a grid collapse; there was a trip-off. When you talk of grid collapse, it will involve 100 per cent of our grid infrastructure. But this was a line tripping in certain quarters in the country; even the major centres were not affected, talk of Abuja, Lagos, and Ibadan. And this was even restored within two hours.
“Let me tell you, grid disturbances are global. We are talking about electrical connections. There could be tripping off due to weather, due to the dilapidation of some infrastructure. What matters most is what is your rate of response to fix this. We responded swiftly and within two hours, we brought it back and it’s working now. So, it’s no big deal,” the Minister told The PUNCH.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TUC) has declared its intention to look into the reasons behind the series of power grid failures that took place on Monday and Tuesday.
Ndidi Mbah, the spokesperson for TCN, clarified in a press release that while efforts to restore the grid started right away, with Azura power station stepping in to provide the initial power, the process of getting the grid back up and running advanced significantly by 10:24 am on Tuesday.
However, it faced a minor obstacle that temporarily slowed down the restoration efforts.
“The slight setback notwithstanding, TCN continued with the grid recovery process, which has reached an advanced stage, ensuring bulk power availability to about 90 per cent of its substations nationwide. Supply has been restored to the Abuja axis and other major distribution load centres nationwide,” she disclosed, even as many areas were still in darkness as of 7 pm on Tuesday.
Mbah clarified that the partial disruption did not impact the Ibom Gas power plant, which was disconnected from the power grid the previous day, and kept providing electricity to regions in the South Southern region of the nation, including Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and Itu 132kV substations throughout that time.
“Investigation into the cause of the incident will be carried out as soon as the grid is fully restored,” she noted.
