- The national grid breaks down twice in the space of three days.
The Nigerian national electricity grid on Tuesday, the 15th of March 2022, experienced a partial collapse. This led to a blackout in several parts of the country, an experience that is capable of throwing several businesses into a state of turmoil.
The collapse happened, according to a report by Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), at about 5:10 pm on Tuesday. It is now currently expected that swift actions will be taken to restore the grid soonest. Notably, a grid collapse is usually caused by weakness in the transmission system of the electricity value chain.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the recent collapse comes barely 48hours after an initial failure of the grid on Monday, 14th of March, 2022. The initial collapse was rectified in the space of two hours, but the recent breakdown of the grid suggests a critical problem with the national grid.
System collapse is an embarrassment. To turn it into a frequent occurrence, borders on incompetence.
Correct! The TCN has become the clog in the grid chain of supply.
For seamless grid operation, there must be close monitoring during supply and cooperation among the GenCos and TCN/DisCos.
Most importantly, the system must have a reserve power (spinning reserve or capacitor) to compensate for line disturbances across the grid.
Different applications across the network induce inrush currents, particularly in a low capacity grid, triggering system collapse.
The stunted growth in the power sector is majorly the instability of the power grid with no reserve power to absorb power shocks. The power grid in Nigeria is stuck in a rut. Unfortunately, the so-called we think it’s about tariffs.
No, not at all. The fundamentals of uninterrupted power supply haven’t changed since Thomas Edison established the first power grid in Manhattan, New York, in 1882. You have to generate and supply more than demand – then waste, for the most part, the extra power to compensate for disturbances, should they occur.
Counting the costs at this stage will never grow the grid. It will continue to stunt growth in the sector.
It’s no rocket science that the glass ceiling remains at 5,000 megawatts. It will remain unsustainable unless we go back to brass tacks. As we speak, we continue to connect new users daily to a dismally low capacity grid.