Another nationwide blackout: Manufacturers, business energy users face hard times over national grid collapses
…Collapse, 8th in 2022
…Unreliable power supply threat to industrialisation – NACCIMA
…Dismantle, discontinue national grid to end incessant collapse – Experts
…As TCN commences partial restoration of power
By Seun Ibiyemi, Gloria Akudoro and Ogaga Ariemu
The National Grid again collapsed on Monday leaving the Country in total blackout with difficulties for businesses.
Monday’s incidence of system failure of the grid made it the eighth time in 2022, leaving manufacturers with disruption to productions and panic of palpable shutdown of operations.
The worry to manufacturers was much in view giving recent cost price of diesel, a crude product used by manufacturers, which has now skyrocketed to N850 per litre.
There was blackout in some parts of the country following the national grid collapse, as electricity distribution companies (Discos) announced Monday that the collapse occurred at about 10:51 a.m.
Considering fear of increased cost of production, manufacturers and experts in the economic sector, are beginning to nurse fear of operational shutdown if the trend of incessant national grid collapse is not nipped in the bud soon.
In a notice on the collapse, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, Plc (EEDC) on Monday said it “wishes to inform her esteemed customers of a system collapse which occurred at 10:51am today (Monday), 26th September, 2022. This has resulted to the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network.
“Due to this development, all our interface TCN stations are out of supply, and we are unable to provide service to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.
“We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre (NCC), Osogbo.”
Also, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) announced the incident, on its Twitter handle saying: “Kindly note that due to a technical fault from TCN’s 2T1 80MVA Power transformer at Jebba, customers in the following communities under Sabo/ Nasarawa & Kainji Road 11kV feeders: Sabo, Nasarawa, Kainji Lake National Park, New Bussa, School of Wild Life Management, Popo, Labararu, Mokwa Community and environs are experiencing power outage.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said on Monday, following the collapse, that it has commenced partial restoration of power nationwide.
This was contained in a statement released to Nigerian NewsDirect on Monday by TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah.
“TCN wishes to inform the public that the national grid experienced partial system disturbance at about 10.51 a.m. today, 26th, September 2022. The incident was a result of sudden drop in system frequency, which created system instability.
“The restoration of the affected part of the grid commenced immediately at 11.55 a.m. with Osogbo/Ihovbor back to the grid followed by Jebba/Osogbo, Kainji/Jebba, Benin/Onisha, Shiroro/Kaduna, Shiroro/Katampe, and Alaoji/Ikot-Ekpene. Others are Lokoja/Gwagwalada, Odukpani/Ikot Ekpene, Benin/Omotosho, Oke-Aro/Ikeja west, Egbin/Oke-Aro and Kaduna/Kano.”
“The National Control Centre (NCC) said a full-scale investigation is being conducted to establish and ascertain the cause of the partial disturbance as this unwholesome event has resulted in aggregated generation loss.
“However, grid restoration is almost completed and the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) regrets any inconveniences caused as well as appreciates the kind understanding of costomers of electricity within and outside the country.
“We are committed to leveraging the concerted interventions instituted so far to enhance power supply reliability so that the issue of system disturbance will soon become outdated,” it stated.
…Sporadic collapse pranks of fraudulent elements benefitting — Source
In an exclusive disclosure, a stakeholder who chose to remain anonymous has revealed that the reason the national grid continues to collapse is because the operators have refused to allow the system to be run based on integrity.
He said this is as a result of lack of automated platform to monitor the truth of the situation which allows people get away without being punished.
While urging the Government to investigate those benefitting from the situation and ensure appropriate penalties are meted, he stated that some mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure a properly structured power market with proper systems to checkmate all the pranks that operators are playing, rather than pointing fingers at those who sell generation.
He added that Government should ensure that operators are rewarded simply based on what they are actually able to put on network and not signing contracts that have pre-concieved amount they will be paid.
Speaking on addressing the situation, he disclosed that the grid requires certain minimum amount of energy flow to drive stability and sustainability of electricity in the country.
..Unreliable power supply threat to industrialisation – NACCIMA
Also, the Director General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Sola Obadimu said that “when a public utility fails, no industry can be happy about it.”
According to him, “Anything that adds to the cost of doing business cannot be attractive to business because when the grid collapses, it results to alternative use of energy which will cost more.
“So, when public infrastructure is unreliable, cost of doing business goes up,” he said.
“We can’t go on like this, because there’s no nation that can truly industrialise without stable infrastructure. Not just necessarily power, roads and public water supply must be reliable, industries should not be sinking boreholes,” he said.
“The power generation and distribution that we keep talking about over the years which is about 4000 Megawatts (MW), if Nigeria is truly industrialised, we should not be generating anything less than 100,000MW.
“Why would South Africa be generating electricity capacity of about 58,095MW with a total population of 57.78 million and Nigeria with 200 million people is still battling with 4000MW for the past 20 years?
“There’s no way we can be industrialised. And even still, the 4000MW is not reliable, fluctuating between 2000MW to 3000MW. The 4000MW is still not effectively distributed.
“We are only generating and supplying power for domestic use only instead of for industrialisation purpose,” Obadimu said.
…Dismantle, discontinue national grid to end incessant collapse – Experts
Reacting to the development, an energy, Agroconsultant and foremost Nigerian Bamboo in a chat with Nigerian NewsDirect on Monday said the national grid should be dismantled and discontinued.
The expert rather advocated for regional and sub-national grid as replacement for national grid.
According to Eleojo, “The collapse of the national grid (what I have consistently called ‘Greed’) is a very shameful thing for a country like Nigeria. We are doing the same thing expecting a different result after failing in the task a million times. It is utter madness if we think its going to change.
“In the first place, we don’t need national grid. Electricity should be localised and small and mini grids should be encouraged to come on board quickly.
“Imagine one hundred companies generating 1MW each across the country from hydro, solar, wind and even biomass and biogas, we will get 100MWs. Is that a difficult thing to achieve? But here we are because of corruption and laziness of a section talking about national grid that is a major source of swindle on the economy and cannot deliver.
“National grid in the first instance is to aid in transporting electricity from point A to B. Why are we transporting meagre electricity around the whole place? Let each state or neighbouring States generate their electricity.
“Like I have said many times, the Federal Government of Nigeria does not know the importance of electricity and some top Government officials are biased towards a section, hence their insistence on national grid. It has to stop whether we like it or not.
“The impact on the economy is catastrophic. Prices of products and services will continue to rise astronomically due to the high cost of diesel. The poor man will continue to suffer more because of the negative impact it will have on Agriculture produce and products.
“Going forward, National grid should be dismantled and discontinued immediately and made a regional grid or sub-regional grid within a State,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Sage Consulting & Communications, Mr.Oyebode Fadipe noted that with the current structure of TCN, it is impossible to avert power outage.
Fadipe said, “It is wishful thinking to expect that there won’t be any grid system outage again after the last one that we suffered. Is the reason for this collapse the same as the reason for the last outage? What lessons did we learn in the last one? Did we put the lessons to use?” he queried.
