Barely a day after repairs, the national electricity grid has again collapsed on Tuesday.
It had collapsed on Monday causing a widespread power outage nationwide.
This is happening despite the emergency meeting called by the Minister of Power, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu that lasted through Monday night where he tasked the operators on working together to make electricity more stable.
The latest system collapse occurred between 5pm and 6pm on Tuesday after the grid generation dropped from 3,000 megawatts (MW) earlier to 1,758MW leaving just 12 Generation Companies (Gencos) operating.
As at the time of this report Tuesday evening, there was no report of any GenCo generating power on the grid, according to hourly data supplied by the System Operations (SO) arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The Tuesday system collapse, according to an official, was multiple, especially from the gas-fired power plants while there were efforts to supply power to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, through the three hydropower plants.
The hydro plants are Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro all in Niger State. Analysis of the 12 power plants operating before the grid system collapsed indicated that they were active as of 5pm and generated 1,758MW before the system went off.
The grid had up to 18 plants operating and generated 3,114MW as of 4pm before six plants went off, causing more instability for the system.
On Sunday, the GenCos complained of poor revenue to procure gas as well as technical issues with mostly the units of gas-fired power plants. and 6pm on Tuesday after the grid generation dropped from 3,000 megawatts (MW) earlier to 1,758MW leaving just 12 Generation Companies (Gencos) operating.