Nationwide Blackout: National Grid Begins Recovery

Electricity Customers Increase By 210,000

Power is being restored to many transmission stations in the country following the nationwide blackout due to the collapse of the national grid on Monday.

This is according to a tweet by Eko Electricity Distribution Company, which states, ‘We would like to inform you that the TCN stations have been restored.

“Power supply to our customers are equally being restored in phases as we monitor the progress. More updates shall be provided on the situation.’

There have been numerous responses to the tweet confirming the restoration of power supply in many parts of the country.

Bizwatch recalls the power generation on the national grid collapsed to zero megawatts around 10.40 a.m. on Monday, leading to widespread blackout across the country.

Different power distribution companies alerted their customers about the grid collapse, stressing that it led to the outages.

Enugu Disco, for instance, described it as a general system collapse, adding that the plunge in power generation on the grid caused a blackout in the five states under its franchise area.

“The Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc wishes to inform her esteemed customers in the South-East of a general system collapse which occurred this morning, Monday, March 14, 2022, at 10:40 a.m.

“This is the reason for the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network,” the firm said in a notice to its power users.

It added, “Consequently, all our outgoing feeders are out and supply to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states are affected by this development. We are on standby and awaiting a signal from the National Control Centre for restoration of supply.”

Also, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company stated that the collapse affected its network and franchise area.

The Ikeja Disco further confirmed the system collapse, stating that it recorded it at almost the same time on Monday.

On its part, Eko Electricity Distribution Company informed its customers that “A system collapse occurred on the national grid at 10:40 a.m. today (Monday), leading to outages across our network.

“We are working on the situation with our TCN partners and will keep you updated. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.”

Industry data seen in Abuja showed that 19 power-generating plants were producing electricity as of 6 a.m. on Monday, but they gradually lost production before the eventual collapse of the grid.

On Sunday, power generation companies blamed the ongoing blackouts across the country on the weak infrastructure of transmission and distribution companies.

On March 8, 2022, the TCN ascribed the low power generation in Nigeria to Gencos’ inability or refusal to generate power. The transmission company absolved itself of any responsibility from the ongoing shortage of power supply across the country.

It was, however, gathered that the Federal Government met with operators in the sector on Monday over issues about the grid collapse and measures adopted to restore it and other concerns about the sector.