Rising energy demand, vandalism affecting grid stability, say experts
06 November 2024 |
2:30 am
Energy experts have attributed the grid collapse that occurred yesterday to ongoing vandalism in the Shiroro and Mando areas, as well as the Band A regime, which collectively intensified the demand-supply imbalance.
• Say stability depends on SCADA systems
Energy experts have attributed the grid collapse that occurred yesterday to ongoing vandalism in the Shiroro and Mando areas, as well as the Band A regime, which collectively intensified the demand-supply imbalance.
Few weeks ago, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced that two towers along its 330kV Shiroro/Kaduna transmission lines One and Two had been vandalised, resulting in damage to parts of both transmission lines, which led to blackout in parts of Kano and Kaduna states.
According to the pundits, the increased demand led to severe strain on equipment, ultimately destabilising the grid. They warn that without addressing the vandalism and reassessing demand policies under the Band A regime, future grid stability remains at risk.
The country was plunged into darkness again, the ninth time this year, yesterday afternoon, following a collapse of the national electricity grid, leaving millions without electricity and disrupting daily life, businesses and essential services.
The collapse, once again, highlighted the persistent vulnerabilities in the country’s energy infrastructure. Nigeria has witnessed nine instances of grid collapse this year; the first was on February 4, followed by March 28, April 15, July 16, August 5, October 14, October 15, October 19 and November 5.
At 2.00 pm, according to data from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal (niggrid.org), power generation dropped to zero megawatts affecting all 22 operational Generation Companies (GenCos) nationwide.
TCN confirmed the collapse in a statement by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, describing it as a partial disturbance that occurred at about 1:52 pm on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. She mentioned that the disturbance occurred following a series of lines and generator trippings that caused the grid instability.
According to her, data from the National Control Centre (NCC) revealed that a part of the grid was not affected by the bulk power disruption.
“TCN engineers are already working to quickly restore bulk power supply to the states affected by the partial disturbance. Bulk power supply was restored to Abuja at 2.49 pm, and we are gradually restoring that of other parts of the country. We sincerely apologise for every inconvenience this may cause our electricity customers,” she stated.
Jos Electricity Distribution (JED), Ikeja Electric (IE) among other DisCos in different statements also confirmed the collapse. The Head, Corporate Communications, JED, Dr Friday Elijah, affirmed that the outage experienced within the company’s franchise areas was due to a loss of power supply from the national grid at about 1.52 pm yesterday.
“We hope to restore normal power supply to our esteemed customers as soon as the grid supply is restored. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to serve you better,” he stated.
Power sector analyst, Habu Sadiek, told The Guardian that the cause of the frequent grid collapse was not a deflection of small MW in the generation pool, but a major disruption significant enough to create an imbalance within a short time, making it impossible for the System Operator (SO) to react immediately.
He stressed that maintaining the stability of the national grid without experiencing collapses required the full and effective use of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems which would enable the SO to monitor and respond quickly to any irregularity, thereby preventing grid collapse.
“Spinning reserve is also another option, but we do not have enough generation for spinning reserve,” he added.
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