NERC to Investigate Recurrent Grid Collapses After Latest Breakdown Caused By Transformer Explosion

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Saturday blamed the collapse of the national grid on a transformer that exploded at 330kV Jebba Transmission substation.

NERC has also announced plans to conduct an investigative public hearing to identify both the immediate and underlying causes of recurring grid disturbances and widespread outages.

This is just as a former Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji, has called on the federal government to resume the signing of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with private investors to ramp up electricity generation in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s single electricity grid suffered another breakdown on Saturday morning, the third of such collapses last week, plunging the whole nation into total darkness.

In a statement issued after the incident by its Public Affairs, General Manager, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, TCN said that the activation system was activated, prompting the busbars to curtail the explosion, thereby preventing an outbreak of fire and further damage to adjacent equipment.

She said: “According to the report from the NCC, the bus section of a current transformer exploded at 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation, and as expected, the protection system was activated, and this promptly opened the busbars to curtail the explosion, thereby preventing an outbreak of fire and further damage to adjacent equipment.”

Describing the situation as a temporary disturbance, she said: “The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that the national grid experienced a temporary disturbance at about 8:15am, today, 19th October 2024.”

According to the statement, the action of the protection system led to a temporary disturbance on the grid.

TCN said: “Our engineers at Jebba have successfully carried out switching, isolating the faulty current transformer.

“They have equally reconfigured the busbar arrangement, restoring power supply to the station, and other parts of the grid.”

The TCN had on Friday announced that two towers along its 330kV Shiroro-Kaduna transmission lines one and two had been vandalised, damaging parts of both transmission lines.

According to reports from the Shiroro Regional office of TCN, the 330kV transmission line one tripped first, followed shortly by the second.

In a similar development, NERC has also attributed Saturday’s collapse of the national grid to an explosion of a transformer.

According to a statement issued, “The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission notes with concern the recent escalating incidence of grid disturbances often leading to marked outage in several states thus reversing many of the gains recently achieved in reducing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.

“Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815hrs and an associated cascade of power plants shut down arising from the loss of load,” NERC said.

Furthermore, NERC stated that finding a lasting solution to the frequent grid collapses remains the commission’s top priority.

The commission further noted that in line with the Electricity Act of 2023, the unbundling of the System Operator (ISO) function from the Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc was ongoing.

It expressed optimism that the establishment of an independent System Operator will promote greater discipline in grid management and encourage optimised infrastructure investments.

The regulatory authority also announced plans to conduct an investigative public hearing to identify both the immediate and underlying causes of recurring grid disturbances and widespread outages.

“In pursuit of finding a permanent resolution to the challenges of the national grid, the Commission shall shortly conduct an investigative public hearing to identify immediate and remote causes of recurring incidence of grid disturbances and widespread outages.

“The date and venue of the public hearing will shortly be announced in the national dailies and stakeholders are encouraged to participate,” NERC stated.

The latest collapse marks the eighth grid failure in 2024, with three occurring within the past week.

In a related development, a former Minister of Power, Professor Nnaji, has called on the federal government to resume the signing of PPAs to ramp up electricity generation in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria currently has about 13,000-megawatt nameplate capacity but generates only about 5,000MW due to some factors that include insufficient natural gas availability for the country’s gas-fired plants, which account for 80 per cent of national grid electricity.

Nnaji told a forum of professionals involved in the electricity value chain, at a large meeting organised by the Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie law firm in Lagos on Friday that without the resumption of the PPAs, “it will be very difficult for any investor to provide money for grid power generation.

He said the PPAs “provide comfort to investors,” citing the example of the 450MW Azura power plant in Edo State, which cost about $900million to build.

“Creditors were able to provide the long-term funds because of the Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) provided in 2012”, he said.

Nnaji was the power minister in 2012 under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

He highlighted that no new power plant had been built by any private sector investor in Nigeria since the suspension of the PPAs in 2015.

He recalled that ExxonMobil and General Electric of the United States, which has been trying to develop a thermal plant of 1,000MW in Aba in partnership with Geometric Power, have since paused action on the projects after spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nnaji also spoke on the “great urgency to address the paralysing supply gas crisis bedeviling the country.”

 According to him, “a situation where Nigeria, the world’s 9th largest gas country, cannot provide gas for domestic consumption is not justifiable.”

The former distinguished engineering professor in the United States observed that the challenges in the power sector “is, to a large extent, a reflection of the broader economic crisis in Nigeria”, advising the political class to embrace patriotism to solve the problems.

“When I was the Minister of Science and Technology in 1993”, he recalled, “all government officials and government establishments were using locally assembled Peugeot vehicles, which provided thousands of citizens and businesses with direct and indirect jobs.

“Government officials in the United States, France, the UK, Italy, Germany, and other places use only vehicles manufactured in their countries.

“At Geometric Power, we made it a policy to patronise only locally produced vehicles like Innoson and Peugeot, just as we use Cutix and Coleman wires and cables made in Nnewi, Anambra State, and Arepo, Ogun State, respectively,” Nnaji explained.

Also, a former engineer with Texas Power and Light, United States of America, Mr. Cliff Eneh, clarified that it would cost between $1.3 million and $1.5 million to build just a one-megawatt gas plant.

Festus Akanbi, Peter Uzoho, Dike Onwuamaeze and Emmanuel Addeh

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