TCN restores national grid, blames fire incident at Afam Power Plant

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says it has fully restored the national grid. 

The national electricity grid, centrally managed from Osogbo, Osun state, suffered a total system collapse for the third time in 2024 at 2.41am on April 15.

According to a statement on Monday by Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s spokesperson, the collapse followed a fire incident at the Afam power generating station, which caused a partial disruption to the nation’s grid. 

“At 02:41Hrs today, 15th April 2024, a fire erupted at the Afam V 330kV bus bar coupler, leading to the tripping of units at Afam III and Afam VI. This resulted in a sudden generation loss of 25MW and 305MW respectively, destabilizing the grid and causing a partial collapse,” TCN said.

“During the incident, the Ibom Power plant was isolated from the grid and was supplying parts of the Port Harcourt Region. This further minimized the effect of the system disturbance. TCN confirms that the affected section of the grid has been fully restored and stabilized.”

Furthermore, TCN reaffirmed its commitment to improving the resilience and reliability of the national grid, pledging to continue investing in measures aimed at strengthening the grid infrastructure.  

Meanwhile, the collapse of the national grid made it impossible for some electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to supply power to their customers.

In a statement released by Emeka Ezeh, Enugu DisCo’s head, corporate communications, said this resulted in the loss of supply to the company’s interface TCN stations.

“Consequently, we were unable to provide service to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States,” Ezeh said.

Also, Eko DisCo said the collapse of the national grid disrupted its services.