According to data obtained on Monday from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, an arm of the Federal Government’s power transmission company, the national electricity grid actually crashed on Sunday, dropping from a peak of 3,703 megawatts to as low as 9MW.
After the national grid collapsed around 6.49 p.m. on Sunday, engineers from the Transmission Company of Nigeria worked tirelessly to ensure the grid’s recovery.
According to the PUNCH, Sunday’s grid failure was the fifth in 2022, prompting many power distribution companies to shut down their various outgoing electricity feeders.
A report from the NESO in Abuja on Monday revealed that the peak generation on Sunday was 3,703MW at 5 am; this was based on the performance of the national grid on Sunday.
However, according to the NESO, this fell to 9MW at 7 pm on Sunday, resulting in the eventual collapse of the national grid.
Several distribution companies, including Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, and Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, confirmed the grid failure in various messages on Sunday night.
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Although there has been no official statement from TCN regarding the grid collapse, it was gathered that its restoration reached an advanced stage on Monday, with power generation peaking at 2,744.6MW around 6 a.m.
Nigeria’s power grid failed twice this year, once in March and again in April. Power generation on the system had continued to fluctuate due to a variety of issues, including gas shortages, water management issues, and gas pipeline vandalism, among others.
Following the disruption in Nigeria’s power supply, experts and consumer groups urged politicians to refrain from generating political megawatts as they court voters ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Nigeria currently has a grid-sourced power generation capacity of 7,500MW, but only 3,600MW is delivered to end-users.
Kunle Olubiyo, an industry expert who also serves as President of the Nigeria Consumer Protection Network noted that ahead of the 2023 elections political candidates should stop producing political megawatts. “Stop generating electric power on the pages of newspapers and social media”, he added.
“I will increase power generation from 5,000MW to 30,000MW“, How do you intend to accomplish this? Please notify us.
“We also have 14,500MW of installed generation capacity that could be used to increase our national energy quantum.” There is available grid power that is typically rejected by the 11 electricity distribution companies and TCN”.
Olubiyi questioned why, since December 2021, Nigeria’s power supply situation had become incomprehensible and embarrassingly unpleasant.
