Adelabu summons TCN, NERC leadership to emergency meeting over grid collapse

Damilola Shittu – Abuja
The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has summoned the leadership of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to an emergency meeting.

The meeting was sequel to the minister’s worries over the disturbances on the national grid which threw some sections of the country into darkness more than once within one week.

Adelabu’s Special Adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, in a statement on Tuesday also said the minister expressed displeasure at the incidences, which he said, were capable of rubbishing the giant strides made in the last one year which, according to him, has led to an increased generation and distribution of 5, 527 megawatts, a record generation in three years.

Tunji further said that Adelabu also constituted a forensic investigation committee with a mandate to advise the government on necessary solutions to make the national grid robust and reliable in addition to the ongoing efforts of the government like the Presidential Power Initiatives (PPI) and the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project (NETAP).

According to him, the committee is to also establish the root cause of the grid collapses especially a review of potential sabotage on the system.

He added that the Committee will holistically review the national grid stability and identify investments and technical capacities required to make the grid smart and resilient.

He added that a technical team has been deployed to access the critical nodes on the national grid to identify potential vulnerabilities and proffer recommendations to address these vulnerabilities to prevent future disruptions to the grid.

According to the statement, the six-member committee are; Engr. Nafisat Ali, Executive Director, Independent System Operator (ISO), who leads the committee; Dr. Chidi Ike, Commissioner, NERC; Engr. Ishola (GM. National Control Centre (NCC); Engr. Emmanuel Nosike, Director, Transmission, Federal Ministry of Power (FMoP); Engr. Ali Sharifai (GM, Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and Mr. Adedayo Olowoniyi, Chief Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power.

It added that the team is expected to present a report to the Minister by November 1, 2024.

Tunji said: “On Monday, October 14, there was a partial collapse due to the tripping of a line at the Jebba Transmission Substation and recurring fault at the Osogbo Transmission Substation. Efforts to restore the grid further resulted in a setback the following day.

“The System was however fully restored on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. There was no grid collapse on Tuesday as was widely speculated as the setback was a continuation of Monday’s restoration efforts on the grid.

“Also what was described on Saturday, October 19, as grid collapse was a deliberate protective shut down of the grid as a result of the explosion of the Jebba transformer. And this was restored within two hours. ‘What we had were more of grid disturbances than collapses.’”

“Preliminary assessment of Jebba incident suggested that the explosion was as a result of ageing equipment unrelated to the initial collapse.”