BAYO ADELABU'S NATIONAL GRID SUFFERS COLLAPSE AGAIN, 3RD TIME IN ONE WEEK

For the third time in less than one week, Nigerians have been thrown into darkness as the national electricity grid has collapsed again.

Reports from multiple sources disclosed that power generation dropped from a peak of 3,594.60 megawatts (MW) at about 1am tuesday morning to a meagre 42.7MW.

Delta Power plant was active on the grid with 41.00MW only as at 12noon while Afam had 1.7MW.

It will be recalled that barely one week ago, the National grid collapsed twice within a space of less than 24 hours leaving the nation in total darkness.

Electricity supply was however restored in Nigeria hours after a nationwide blackout on Thursday when the national grid operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Osogbo, Osun State collapsed.

Day's before this incident, the Nigerian Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu claimed that the explosion at Kainji/Jebba 330kV was the cause of the collapse of the national grid during the early hours of last Thursday.

The minister had disclosed this in a series of tweets on X platform while assuring that all hands are on deck to ensure speedy restoration of the power.

He said: “At 00:35Hrs this morning, Fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. 

This led to sharp drop in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation lossing 356.63MW.

“We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress. The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time.

But less than 5 hours after the terse message, another fire incident was experienced at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) power station in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State which was also gutted by fire.

The inferno was said to have engulfed the 330 kilovolt (kV) facility around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday. September 14, 2023.

The latest collapse, which is the third in a space of one week has again thrown the nation into another round of darkness, which comes with it's attendant consequences on the economy of the country.

Reacting to this, Nigerians are beginning to get worried and eyebrows are now being raised on the incessant fire outbreak on TCN installations across the country and wondering if this is a sabotage or ill preparedness on the part of the new minister.