Nigeria’s national grid collapsed on Tuesday leading to nationwide blackout.
The power generation crashed from a peak of 3,594.60 megawatts at midnight to an alarming low of 42.7MW by midday.
The Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu has blamed the collapse on an inferno in his X handle.
“At 00:35 Hrs this morning, a Fire outbreak with an explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning.
“This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW,” Adelabu had said.
The minister said Kainji started dropping the load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07 Hrs to zero.
“At 00:41 Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41 Hz resulting in the system collapse of the grid.
“We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress. The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time.
“My sincere appreciation to those who responded or expressed concern via different channels and the team of Engineers for their prompt response to the situation and work done so far. Let’s get the restoration work completed as soon as possible,” he had said.
This is coming barely five days after the grid collapsed twice within a space of more than 12 hours.