In yet another alarming setback for Nigeria’s electricity supply, the nation experienced a severe collapse in power generation. The situation unfolded as power output plummeted dramatically, dropping from a robust 3,594.60 megawatts (MW) at the stroke of midnight to an astonishingly low 42.7MW.
At noon on Tuesday, only the Delta Power plant managed to maintain a meager 41.00 MW of operational power on the national grid, while Afam contributed a mere 1.7 MW to the struggling system.
Okay.ng reports that this marks the third grid collapse in a matter of days, casting Nigeria into prolonged darkness on multiple occasions. The reasons behind this recurring crisis remain shrouded in mystery, though it should be noted that Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, had previously attributed a recent collapse to a devastating inferno.
In a series of tweets on his X handle, the minister attributed the development to a fire outbreak on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line, leading to about 356.63MW generation loss.
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“At 00:35 Hrs this morning, a Fire outbreak with an explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning.
“This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW,” Adelabu had said.
He said Kainji started dropping the load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07 Hrs to zero.
“At 00:41 Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41 Hz resulting in the system collapse of the grid.
“We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress. The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time.
“My sincere appreciation to those who responded or expressed concern via different channels and the team of Engineers for their prompt response to the situation and work done so far. Let’s get the restoration work completed as soon as possible,” he had said.
