Nationwide Blackout in Nigeria as Power Grid Collapses Again

By Derrick Bangura

This was just as airline operators in Nigeria on Monday warned that they have only three days left to shut down operations over lingering scarcity of aviation fuel.

For the power sector, as at Monday afternoon, the system was yet to pick up load, according to a grid operations report, which showed that just three Generation Companies (Gencos) were trying to restart, but were yet to generate any energy.

THISDAY learnt that Minister of Power, Mr. Abubakar Aliyu, called an emergency meeting on Monday to resolve all outstanding issues with the stakeholders in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) as a result of the worsening power situation.

According to the grid operation trend, of the active 25 Gencos on the grid, 19 were producing power as of 6am, when the grid had 3,867.60MW, but that began to reduce gradually until it dropped to 2,761.20MW by 10am after six Gencos went down, leaving just 13, before crashing to zero at 10.40 am.

THISDAY learnt that at least 1,100MW was initially lost from the 3,867MW peak generation before the Gencos started shutting down.

The analysis showed that the affected plants included Azura-Edo IPP (Gas), which was generating 447MW earlier, and Shiroro hydropower, which had 300MW earlier and later went off. Trans-Amadi (Gas) lost 92MW, Alaoji NIPP (Gas) lost 75MW, while Ihovbor NIPP (Gas) lost 101MW.

As of Monday, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which manages the power grid, had yet to comment on the immediate cause of the collapse, although, it was the first in the year.

The blackout had worsened throughout the country around 10:40am, after the national grid collapsed, with the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, confirming the incident in a text message to its customers.

The text message read, “Dear esteemed customers, a system collapse occurred on the national grid at 10:40am today, leading to outages across our network. We are working on the situation with our TCN partners and will keep you updated.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.”

Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) also pleaded for the understanding of its customers, noting that it is taking appropriate steps to ameliorate the effect.

The Disco stated, “Dear esteemed customer, we experienced general outage across AEDC network at 10:40am today due to a system collapse which occurred on the national grid.

“Appropriate measures are now being taken to restore normal supply as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.”

While confirming the system collapse yesterday, Kaduna Electricity assured its customers that power would soon be restored.

It stated, “We regret to inform you that the power outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to system collapse of the national grid which occurred about 10:40am.

“Power supply shall be restored as soon as the National Grid is powered back. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.”

In its notice to customers, Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc said the system collapse affected supply in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states.

The notice signed by EEDC Head, Corporate Communications, Emeka Ezeh, read, “The Enugu Electricity Distribution PLC (EEDC) wishes to inform her esteemed customers in the South East of a general system collapse which occurred this morning, Monday, 14th March 2022 at 10:40 am.

“This is the reason for the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network.

“Consequently, all our outgoing feeders are out and supply to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states is affected by this development.”

Meanwhile, the power minister on Monday held an emergency meeting with all stakeholders in the power sector to address the current low power generation. He warned that stakeholders must work together to make electricity more stable.

The meeting held at the conference hall of the ministry had in attendance delegations from the Gencos, TCN, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Nigerian National Petroleum Company ( NNPC), Shell, and other stakeholders in the power value chain.

A source at the meeting quoted Aliyu as saying, “This meeting was summoned to address the current electricity situation in the country, which we are not happy about. We must find a solution so that Nigerians will have electricity. I want us to have the patience to talk to each other, not blame each other.”

 Aliyu maintained that the Nigerian government would not relent in its effort to ensure that improvements in the power sector were sustained and built upon, adding that current challenges must be addressed.

The meeting, according to the minister, would find solutions that would ensure prompt resolution of all the problems affecting power generation currently besetting Nigeria.

 In Lagos, the Egbin Power Plc also recorded a collapse in its power generating system for the second time in 2022. The Egbin Power system collapse, which occurred about 10:40am, was witnessed by journalists who were at the venue to cover the 2022 edition of Egbin Graduate Engineers Programme (GEP).

The incident happened in the presence of the top management team of Egbin, including Group Managing Director of Sahara Power Group and Chairman of Ikeja Electric, Mr. Kola Adesina, among others.

The Minister of Power had penultimate week blamed the low water level at the dams for the worsening power supply in the country.

TCN also had last week attributed the worsening power situation to low power generation from generation companies (Gencos).

The Gencos in turn fired back on Sunday, as their Executive Secretary, Dr Joy Ogaji, blamed the worsening state of power supply in the country on the N1.6 trillion owed them by the federal government since 2013.

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), on its part, disputed the Gencos’ debt claim, saying only companies with active gas supply and transportation contracts were paid for unutilised capacity.

The Sahara Power GMD expressed sadness over the poor state of the country’s power sector and the endless blame game among players in the sector.

Adesina, “I hate what is going on. As a Nigerian, I’m displeased, I’m not happy and I will tell you why. All that Nigerians want today is power. Isn’t it? No blame game now, no story.

“Just give power to the people, end of discussion. When generation says it’s gas, story. When gas says because people are not paying them, story. When TCN says Discos are not taking power, story. So, it’s just stories. We don’t want stories. I’m tired of the contradictory stories and I don’t like it.”

Adesina said the blame game in the sector could only be solved in a sincere dialogue by all the market participants.

According to him, “Once that is done, the problem will be solved, and I know that the Minister of Power is already planning to bring all the sector participants together to have a conversation to resolve this problem.”

In a related development, the Board of Directors of Eko Electricity Distribution Company approved the appointment of Dr. Tinuade Sanda as Deputy Managing Director of the company. Prior to her appointment, Sanda was Chief Accounting Officer, a position she had occupied since 2013.

This announcement was made by EKEDC General Manager, Corporate Communications, Godwin Idemudia.

Idemudia said in the statement, “We are pleased to announce that the Board of Eko DisCo has approved the appointment of Dr. Tinuade Sanda as the new Deputy CEO, which is in line with the company’s strategies and procedures.

“The Board and Management are confident in Sanda’s proficiency and capacity to assist in leading the company towards its vision of becoming the leading and customer-centric electricity distribution company in Africa.”

Commenting on the appointment, Board Chairman, EKEDC, Mr. Oritsedere Otubu, said, “We are proud to announce Tinuade Sanda our first female Deputy CEO. Her appointment has proven the resilience of our succession planning mechanisms and the value we place on our corporate governance practices, which underpin our philosophy of building and recognising home-grown talents.”