Nigeria’s power woes deepen as national grid faces another collapse

Joy Agwunobi 

Once again, Nigerians are struggling with the harsh reality of an unreliable electricity supply as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced efforts to restore the national grid following a partial collapse on Monday. The incident, which occurred at approximately 6:48 p.m., plunged several cities into darkness, marking the eighth time the grid has failed this year.

It is a scenario all too familiar for a nation held hostage by a power system that is struggling to meet its citizens’ needs.

On  Tuesday morning, just hours after the initial collapse, the grid failed again, raising serious concerns about the stability of Nigeria’s electricity infrastructure. The back-to-back failures, which occurred within less than 24 hours, highlight the challenges of maintaining a consistent and reliable power supply in a country where energy infrastructure is widely regarded as one of the weakest links in its economy.

The collapse of the national grid is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria. In fact, the situation has become a recurring nightmare, disrupting not only the daily lives of Nigerians but also stifling economic growth. For many, this latest incident is just another reminder of how fragile the nation’s power sector remains, despite efforts to reform and improve it.

Power outages have become so frequent that they have been likened to a recurring illness; one that infects the nation’s economy and brings untold suffering to millions of people.

The consequences of Nigeria’s power crisis go far beyond the inconvenience of power outages. The inability to maintain a stable electricity supply has far-reaching impacts on both the economy and the quality of life for Nigerians. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable, as many are unable to shoulder the burden of consistently generating their own power amid skyrocketing fuel prices. For individuals, the daily frustrations and hardships of living without reliable electricity create a persistent sense of uncertainty and stress.

While Nigeria’s government has made several attempts to privatise and modernise the power sector, these efforts have so far failed to deliver the significant improvements that were promised. The national grid’s repeated collapses point to deep-rooted problems within the country’s energy infrastructure, which suffers from a number of chronic issues.

According to the TCN, a variety of factors contribute to these collapses, including a lack of operating reserves, outdated equipment, vandalism, and inadequate voltage support systems.

In a statement earlier this year, the TCN highlighted some of the major causes behind the grid failures these include the lack of a reliable Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which limits real-time monitoring and control of the grid, as well as the absence of adequate transition line redundancy, which leaves the system vulnerable to disruptions. Vandalism and frequent tripping of critical transmission lines further compound the problem, preventing the grid from maintaining stability.

In response to the recent grid collapse, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) swiftly launched recovery operations. Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager of Public Affairs, issued a statement on Tuesday detailing the recovery process, which began promptly with Azura Power Station initiating a “blackstart” to restore power.

By 10:24 a.m. on Tuesday, Mbah noted that the recovery had made significant strides, although a brief technical setback had caused a minor delay. “Despite the setback, TCN continued its recovery efforts and made substantial progress,” she said, while noting that bulk power availability has been restored to approximately 90 percent of our substations across the country, with power supply resumed to the Abuja axis and other key distribution load centres.

In addition, Mbah noted that the partial disturbance did not impact the Ibom Gas Power Station, which maintained its operations and continued to supply electricity to several regions in the South-South, including Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and the Itu 132-kilovolt transmission substations.