A federal ministry of power report obtained yesterday in Abuja showed that Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed twice on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9.
According to the report, the quantum of electricity on the grid crashed from over 3,000 megawatts on Friday to as low as 10MW around 21.00 hours same day.
On Saturday, electricity grid collapsed to 33MW around 01.00 hours, after it had earlier posted a peak generation of 3,281.50MW at 00.00 hours the same day.
The report, however, indicated that power generation on the grid moved up on Sunday, April 10, 2022, as the off-peak on that day was put at 3,117.40MW, while the peak generation was 3,658.80MW.
It was further observed that of 06.00 hours on Monday, April 11, 2022, the quantum of power on the national grid was 3,623.90MW, indicating a marginal drop of 34.9MW when compared to the previous day’s peak generation.
The collapse of Nigeria’s electricity grid had continued amidst efforts to halt the recurrent issue.
The federal government announced on Saturday that the Nigerian Electricity and Regulatory Commission and the System Operator were investigating the causes of the recurrent power grid collapse that had repeatedly led to widespread blackout across the country.
Last month, the national grid collapsed twice within a space of two days, a development that made the federal government summon a meeting of stakeholders to address the issue.
The special adviser to the president on infrastructure, Mr. Ahmed Zakari, blamed the recent collapse on the sabotage of power infrastructure.
“Yesterday we had a grid collapse, the driver was sabotage of Ikot-Ekpene Calabar 330kv tower. The grid is connected, an event at a large power source can collapse the system. Sabotage of our infrastructure by citizens is difficult to comprehend.
“It is important to improve security but the infrastructure is vast, spans thousands of kilometers, and has multiple risk points. When citizens sabotage infrastructure, it leads you to question if we want to progress as a nation. Hardship inflicted on fellow citizens is unconscionable.
“We will work to innovate infrastructure security protocol but securing our infrastructure must be everyone’s work. If you see someone damaging infrastructure please take action to report to authorities or intervene if possible. This is our ‘common wealth’ and we must protect it,” he said
