Blackout in northern Nigeria as transmission lines trip

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reported power outage in the northeast, northwest and parts of north-central after 330-kilovolt (kV) Ugwaji–Apir double circuit transmission lines 1 and 2 tripped on Tuesday.

In a statement via X by Ndidi Mbah, general manager, public affairs, TCN said the transmission lines tripped around 4:53am “due to a fault”.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) reports that its 330kV Ugwaji–Apir Double Circuit transmission lines1&2, tripped due to a fault, resulting in a forced power outage affecting the North East, North West and parts of North Central,” the commission said.

“At approximately 4:53 am, the Ugwuaji-Makurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped, and 243 MW on that line was transferred to Line 1 on the same route. At 4:58 am, Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW. By around 5:15 am and 5:17 am, Line 1 and Line 2 were tried, but they all tripped immediately on the same relay indication.

“Following the tripping incidents yesterday, two teams of linesmen were dispatched—one from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and another from the Enugu transmission team—to expedite fault tracing along the 215 km route, which includes 245 transmission towers.

“Throughout yesterday, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating difficult terrain in search of the fault, reaching as far as the River Benue. They could not locate the cause of the tripping and have continued the fault tracing early this morning.”

‘SIT-AT-HOME DIRECTIVE AFFECTED PATROL’

TCN said a ‘sit-at-home’ directive reportedly by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) affected the commission’s patrol activities.

Several social media posts on Monday suggested that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had ordered south-eastern residents to sit at home on Monday and Tuesday.

“Meanwhile, the patrol team from the Enugu Region of TCN was unable to begin patrols yesterday due to the ‘sit-at-home’ directive in the South East for October 21st and 22nd, 2024,” TCN said.

“This restricted not only the patrol team but also made it difficult to refuel patrol vehicles for the long-distance line trace. However, arrangements were made for security operatives to guide the team, who have now commenced fault tracing this morning.

“Currently, TCN has restored supply to the 132kV transmission line from New Haven to Apir, but the 330kV lines remain out of service, affecting power supply in the northern region. Unfortunately, the TCN Shiroro-Mando transmission line is also down due to security challenges, causing a power outage in the North.”

TCN said challenging terrain, including swamps and rivers, as well as unsafe areas in forests, delayed their search for solutions on Monday.

“We sincerely apologise to the government and electricity consumers in all the affected states and acknowledge that our patrol teams would have continued their search into the night if not for the challenging terrain, which includes swamps and rivers, as well as insecure areas in the forest,” the commission said.

“We reconvened very early this morning with security operatives and have continued the fault tracing to locate and address the cause of the line tripping.”

TCN said the commission is making every effort to trace the cause of the outage to allow their engineers to carry out repairs and restore bulk power supply through both lines.

On October 19, the national electricity grid collapsed for the eighth time in 2024, resulting in a nationwide blackout.

The next day, Sule Abdulaziz, TCN chief executive officer (CEO), said the commission is not to blame for all national grid collapses in the country.

Abdulaziz said system collapse could be caused by generation, transmission, and distribution issues.