Nationwide blackout as electricity grid collapses again

The national electricity grid collapsed again on Wednesday, crashing to zero megawatts.

This latest collapse occurred following a fault that threw the entire country into a blackout.

This latest development is coming 38 days after a similar collapse on June 12, and just 20 days after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission activated a partial contract order for the Nigerian electricity market to guarantee 5,000MW and at least 4,000MW.

The latest system collapse, being the fifth this year, according to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, occurred around 11:27am while the grid went totally blank at about 12 noon.

Data from the System Operations section of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), as of 11am, indicated that the grid generation had dropped from over 3,000MW earlier to 2,788.90MW with 19 active generation companies (GenCos).

The highest generation came from Delta Gas with 453MW and Azura with 448MW while Dadin Kowa had dropped to zero point.

Confirming the development, the EKo Disco said via its Twitter handle, “Dear Customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the National grid at precisely 11:27 am today, Wednesday, July 20. We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline.”

But the grid manager, TCN, had yet to announce the immediate cause of the collapse of the system.