From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said that grid disturbances/system collapses have declined by 76 per cent, 47 per cent.
It also said that between 2020 to date (five years), it recorded 14 total and six partial grid disturbances totalling 20, which represents a 76 per cent.47 per cent reduction in grid disturbance, when compared to the previous five years, (2015 to 2019) where there were 64 total and 21 partial grid disturbances, totalling 85 times.
This improvement is, however, not unconnected to the continuous efforts by the management under Engineer Sule Abdulaziz to strategically expand the grid while harnessing in-house capacities to find solutions to grid stability, pending the deployment of System Control and lack of Adequate Data Acquisition (SCADA).
“No doubt, there is room for improvement, and TCN will continue to work hard to further reduce the number of grid disturbances to the barest minimum” . General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, Ndidi Mbah, said in a statement.
Recall that between December last year and now, the national grid failure has occurred more than four times so throwing Nigerians into sudden blackouts.
Grid failure is described as the total loss of power on the national network, caused by a fault that affects the distribution of electricity. The most common causes of grid failure are natural causes and human error.
Nigeria’s national power grid collapsed 46 times from 2017 to 2023 and Nigerians endured more nationwide blackouts in 2023, especially on September 14 , last when the grid collapsed due to a fire on a major transmission line. The effect of the fire was a total blackout that lasted for days nationwide.
TCN is grappling with antiquated and archaic infrastructure some of which were installed in the 60’s and have not been replaced.
Foluso Alabi is a grid developer and the Vice President, Ashipa Electric.
In his opinion, the grid system was designed to collapse, ab initio. He wondered how a cable would run seamlessly from one end of the country to another without any obstruction for years. That process, according to him, is obsolete and should be discarded. He said that every state or locality should be able to generate, transmit and distribute its own power. Again, the grid needs revamping and until that is done, the grid will continue to collapse.
Apart from management and political issues, generation should be diversified into wind, solar, bio therma, hydro and gas.
The National President of Licensed Electrical Contractors of Nigeria (LECAN), Dr John Ekere Etim indicted both TCN, the governments and the police for the instability in the grid network. He said that the government has not been able to tackle vandalism very effectively. ENDS