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‘Why collapse of Nigeria’s electricity grid persists’

By Kingsley Jeremiah, Abuja
04 July 2019   |   3:17 am
Distribution Companies (DisCos), have said the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), should be held responsible for the persistent collapse of the nation’s electricity grid. While power grid collapse has become a recurring decimal with the current incident making it the ninth so far this year alone, the 10-member body said the poor transmission network protection being…

[FILE PHOTO] Transmission Company of Nigeria station. PHOTO :Iwin.org.ng

Distribution Companies (DisCos), have said the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), should be held responsible for the persistent collapse of the nation’s electricity grid.

While power grid collapse has become a recurring decimal with the current incident making it the ninth so far this year alone, the 10-member body said the poor transmission network protection being operated by TCN was the caused by the system.

Spokesman for the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, said yesterday, in Abuja, while the recent incident at Benin DisCos is regrettable, “the DisCos remain available to offer their technical assistance to TCN, to ensure that our valued customers do not remain in darkness.” 

According Oduntan, TCN’s failure at the Benin Substation was the second of such occurrences in the same city within a year, and recalled that similar lapses had affected substations in Lagos, Calabar, Abuja, Enugu, and Onitsha as at May 8, 2019, which were due to inadequate transmission protection mechanisms and procedures.

Noting that TCN arbitrarily dumps load on the DisCos, Oduntan said the Company lacked a properly protected transmission system, which would have isolate faults. 

“Unfortunately, the resultant effect is that we have experienced the ninth total black out in Nigeria this year (five times in January, once in April, twice in May and once in June), a rate of transmission failure that is in excess of one blackout per month – far beyond any international standard,” he said.

Oduntan noted that over 100 partial and total transmission system collapses have been recorded since the sector privatisation in 2013, and urged the company to focus on realising actual delivery of its acclaimed 8100MW wheeling capacity as the current figure “is based on nothing more than a computer simulation.”

Oduntan therefore said there is a need to address TCN radial transmission network for better power delivery, adding that it needs to procure the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), to monitor the grid and trace system collapse faults.

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