The Nigerian Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has attributed the collapse of the national grid during the early hours of Thursday to a fire outbreak at Kainji/Jebba 330kV station. The minister made this revelation through a series of tweets on the X platform, where he also assured the public that efforts were underway to swiftly restore power.
In his tweets, he stated, “At 00:35 AM this morning, a fire outbreak with an explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J), involving the blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 1, which was observed burning. This incident led to a sharp drop in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67Hz at 00:35:06 AM, resulting in a Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.”
He continued, “We are actively addressing the situation, and the restoration process is already underway. The fire has been fully contained, and more than half of the connections have been restored, with the rest expected to be fully operational shortly. I extend my sincere appreciation to those who responded promptly and expressed their concern through various channels.”
Earlier, SaharaReporters had reported that electricity supply was gradually being restored in parts of Nigeria after a nationwide blackout caused by the collapse of the national grid operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) from Osogbo in Osun State.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company confirmed this development in a Twitter post on Thursday, stating, “Dear Valued Customer, Kindly be informed that the power supply has been restored from the grid. Thank you for your patience.”
The nationwide blackout affected major cities and towns in the country due to the grid failure that occurred in the early hours of Thursday. Reports indicated that the grid’s electricity generation capacity dropped to a mere 273 megawatts during this period, originating from just two out of the over 27 electricity generation sources.
Various distribution companies also reported that the grid failure occurred at 00:41 AM, resulting in most of their feeders being offline.