By John Ikani
Some parts of Nigeria were on Tuesday thrown into darkness following another system collapse of the National Grid.
The electricity grid collapsed around 5pm on Tuesday, which was barely 48 hours after it collapsed on Monday, a development that caused widespread darkness across the country.
Electricity distribution companies again alerted their customers about the collapse which paints a bleak future for the West African nation
Power Sector amidst the current energy crisis in the petroleum sector in Nigeria.
In a message to its customers, Ikeja Electric said the grid collapsed at about 5:10pm on Tuesday.
“This is to inform you that the outage you are currently experiencing is due to the system collapse on the national grid which occured today at 17:10hrs and this has affected the Transmission Stations within our networks,” the message, which was posted on Twitter, reads.
“Kindly bear with us as we await restoration of the grid. We apologise for all inconveniences caused.”
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc (EEDC) also announced the second collapse incident and said its customers in five states will be affected.
“The Enugu Electricity Distribution PLC (EEDC) wishes to inform her esteemed customers of another system collapse which occurred at 5.10pm this evening, Tuesday, 15th March, 2022,” Emeka Ezeh, head of corporate communications, said in the statement.
“This is coming barely 24 hours after the grid collapse experienced in the early hours of yesterday, Monday, 14th March, 2022.
“As a result of this unfortunate development, all our outgoing feeders are out and supply to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States has been affected.
“We are currently on standby, awaiting further directive from the National Control Centre (NCC) for restoration of supply.”
Industry sources say at the time of second on Tuesday, no power generation company was supplying electricity on the grid.
According to the sources, the latest grid collapse was multiple, especially from the gas-fired power plants, adding efforts were made to supply electricity to the Federal Capital Territory using the hydro-power plants in Niger State.
Also, sources at the ministry blamed the activities of vandals for the loss in power generation, stressing that some gas pipelines had been ruptured and that this had also prevented the flow of gas to thermal power plants.
On the meeting summoned on Monday by the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, it was gathered that it went on till past midnight on Monday and continued till past 10pm on Tuesday when this report was filed in.
