TCN, NERC say grid collapse caused by transformer explosion

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has admitted a ‘temporary disturbance’ of the national grid at 8.15am on Saturday, noting that its engineers at Jebba are restoring power to the station and other parts of the grid.

In a statement issued on its X account on Saturday, Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s general manager, Public Affairs, said 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 outbreak of fire and further damage to adjacent equipment. The action of the protection system led to a temporary disturbance on the grid,” Mbah said.

The national power grid collapsed on Saturday morning, marking the third such incident in just one week.The repeated power failures have intensified frustrations across the country, as businesses, homes, and critical infrastructure continue to feel the pinch of the nation’s unreliable electricity supply.

The grid collapse occurred early Saturday morning, with many states reporting total blackouts. This latest failure comes on the heels of two other collapses earlier in the week, further straining the already fragile power system.

However, power is gradually returning, with 720 megawatts of electricity restored as of 3.25pm on Saturday.

“Our engineers at Jebba have successfully carried out switchings, isolating the faulty current transformer. They have equally reconfigured the busbar arrangement, restoring power supply to the station, and other parts of the grid,” Mbah further said.

Similarly, the NERC said in a statement that the grid collapse was caused by transformer explosion.

“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,” it said.

“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 associated cascade of power plants shutdown arising from the loss of load. However, efforts to restore supply have advanced with power significantly restored, as at 1300hrs, in 33 states and the FCT,” it added.