Why national grid collapsed —Minister

The Federal Ministry of Power has revealed the reason behind the recent collapse of the national electricity grid.

In a statement signed by the media aide, Isa Sanusi, on behalf of the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, on Saturday, the ministry disclosed that vandals had caused a disruption on the transmission tower between Akwa Ibom and Cross River.

The national electricity grid collapsed for the third time within the space of one month on Friday evening.

The ministry assured that the System Operator was on top of the matter as it works to restore power across the country.

The statement read, “Further to our earlier press release, we wish to apprise the general public that the immediate cause of national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani — Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation. This consequently led to a cascade of plants shut down across the country.

“We wish to notify the public that power on the grid is being restored sequentially by the System Operator as other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by the Niger Power Holding Company Ltd.”

In March, the national electricity grid collapsed twice which left Nigerians battling power shortage amidst fuel scarcity.

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