Vandalism of transmission tower caused grid collapse – FGN
Story from Abah ADAH, Abuja
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has said the recent collapse of the national grid which led to power outages across the country was caused by the vandalisation of a transmission tower in the south-south region.
The national grid had collapsed twice back-to-back on Friday night, making it the third incident in less than four weeks.
Earlier, the ministry of power said a detailed investigation into the causes of the recurring grid collapse was ongoing.
In a follow-up statement to an earlier one which said investigations were on to ascertain the cause of the latest collapse, Isa Sanusi, media spokesperson to the Ministry of Power, Engr Abubakar Aliyu, said the latest incident had been traced to the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line.
“Further to our earlier press release, we wish to apprise the general public that the immediate cause of the national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400 MW of generation,” the statement reads.
“This consequently led to a cascade of plants shutdown across the country.
“We wish to notify the public that power on the grid is being restored sequentially by the system operator as other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd.”
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