Nigeria in Darkness as National Power Grid Suffers Sixth Collapse in 2022

Emmanuel Addeh and Peter Uzoho

The national electricity grid yesterday suffered its sixth system collapse in 2022, throwing many homes and businesses across the country into total blackout.

The system failure, which occurred at about 11.27.am, according to industry sources, led to the crash of the entire power supply nationwide to 40 megawatts (mw)

as against 3,000MW generated on Tuesday.

THISDAY learnt that allocations to the 10 electricity distribution companies (Discos) were zero, except 40MW and 10MW to Abuja and Ibadan Discos respectively, when the incident occurred.

The cause of the system collapse was yet to be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.

However, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which manages the national grid, has embarked on an investigation to ascertain the cause of the collapse.

Confirming the incident in a notice to its customers, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) said it was in talks with the TCN to ascertain the cause of the collapse and possible restoration timeline.

EKEDC stated, “Dear customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the national grid at precisely 11:27a.m today, July 20.

“We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline. We will keep you updated on the situation.”

The development threw many parts of the country , including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT,) into total darkness and had yet to be resolved as of yesterday evening.

Also, the Head, Corporate Communications, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDC), Abdulazeez Abdullahi, announced the incident on behalf of the company in a statement published on its Facebook page.

“We regret to inform our customers that the power failure currently being experienced is as of the collapse of the national grid which occurred by 11:28 this morning.

“We hereby assure our esteemed customers of restoration of normal power supply as soon as TCN restores supply to us. We sincerely regret the inconveniences caused by the system failure,” he stated.

In the same vein, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in a statement noted: “Please be informed that the current power outage is due to a system failure from the national grid.

“The system collapsed at about 12:23 pm today, 20 July 2022, causing the outage currently being experienced. We appeal for your understanding as all stakeholders are working hard to restore normal supply,” it said.

The nation’s power sector has apparently defied all attempts made towards improving it even after the privatisation of the generation and distribution segments over eight years ago.

There has not been any marked improvement in the power supply situation in the country, if anything, it was a continuation of the darkness that has pervaded all homes and offices across the country for decades.

 The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which had stated in Lagos, last month, that Nigerians were going to experience an improvement in power supply from July 1, has now got not a lot of persons disappointed.

THISDAY had reported that the Chairman of NERC, Mr. Sanusi Garba had said that market participants including TCN, generation companies (Gencos), Discos and others had agreed to activate contracts that would guarantee seamless gas supply to Gencos as well as steady payment for gas and power generated.

He had said the arrangement, which was the first of its kind in the country, would result in the delivery of 5000mw minimum electricity supply to Nigerians from the stated date, with potential for increase to 7000mw progressively.

But July 1 has come and gone and the month is fast running out without any visible improvement in the sector.