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15-09-2023
ABUJA: “A total system collapse” has resulted in widespread power blackouts across Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.
The outage on Thursday affected all of Nigeria’s 36 states and its capital, Abuja.
The grid has collapsed multiple times, and it was not clear when power would be restored.
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, which supplies electricity to southeastern Nigeria, issued a statement announcing a “total system” collapse.
“Due to this development, we are unable to provide service to our customers,” company spokesperson Emeka Ezeh said.
Power generation fell to zero early on Thursday and had risen to 273 megawatts (MW) by 10:30 GMT, well below the daily average of 4,100MW, data from the Transmission Company of Nigeria showed.
“Power supply shall be restored as soon as the national grid is powered back,” the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, which supplies power to parts of northern Nigeria, said in a statement.
Grid power supply is erratic in Nigeria, a major oil and gas producer, forcing households and businesses to use diesel and petrol generators.
However, petrol and diesel prices have more than doubled this year after the government ended decades-long subsidies, and many households and businesses have struggled to find alternative sourceo of power.
In 2022, Nigeria’s grid collapsed at least four times, which authorities blamed on technical problems.
Nigeria has 12,500MW of installed capacity but produces about a quarter of that.
President Bola Tinubu has promised to improve supply by allowing state governments to build their own power plants in a bid to help spur sluggish economic growth.
TCN emerged from the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) as a product of the merger of the Transmission and Operations sectors on April 1, 2004. TCN was incorporated in November 2005. Being one of the 18 unbundled Business Units under the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), TCN was issued a transmission License on 1st July, 2006. It was subsequently issued two licences on June 10, 2013 for electricity transmission and system operations. (Int’l News Desk)
