Blackout in Nigeria as electricity grid records total collapse

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Friday said a total system collapse of the national electricity grid was recorded at 8:03pm on Thursday.

In a statement, the company said this resulted in temporary loss of electricity generation for the nation’s power grid.

TCN management said reports obtained from power stations and the sequence of events generated by the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) had revealed the cause of the collapse.

It said the SCADA system report indicated that the system collapse was triggered by the tripping of Egbin power plants units ST4, ST6 and ST5.

It, however, said that restoration of grid system had also commenced at 8:22pm on Thursday.

According to the statement, a post-mortem analysis of the issue indicated that grid generation was curtailed to about 4,262.7 megawatts (MW) before the disturbance.

It explained that the capacity under-utilisation and the operational capability required to maintain grid stability, which had waned, made the grid system vulnerable.