The government blames poor management and low gas supply as the major causes of the repeated breakdown of the grid
Major Nigerian cities including the Federal Capital Territory were thrown into darkness on Wednesday when the country’s electricity grid collapsed.
Electricity distribution companies announced Wednesday that the collapse occurred at about 11:00 am.
Wednesday’s incident is the seventh reported collapse in 2022.
The government blames poor management and low gas supply as the major causes of the repeated breakdown of the grid, which is managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
The electricity distribution companies across Nigeria get their electricity supply from the national grid.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Plc informed its customers of the grid collapse via Facebook.
“Dear Customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the National grid at precisely 11:27am today, Wednesday July 20th. We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline. We will keep you updated on the situation,” it wrote.
The head of corporate communications at Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, announced the incident on behalf of the company in a statement published on Facebook.
“We regret to inform our customers that the power failure currently being experienced is as of the collapse of the National Grid which occurred by 11:28 this morning,” he wrote.
“We hereby assure our esteemed customers of restoration of normal power supply as soon as TCN restores supply to us. We sincerely regret the inconveniences caused by the system failure,”.
Also, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company in a statement said, “Please be informed that the current power outage is due to a system failure from the National Grid.”
“The system collapsed at about 12:23 p.m. today, 20 July 2022, causing the outage currently being experienced. We appeal for your understanding as all stakeholders are working hard to restore normal supply.”
Restructuring DisCos
Wednesday’s electricity collapse occurs at a period the electricity distribution companies are being restructured.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how five of Nigeria’s eleven energy distribution corporations are undergoing restructuring.
Distribution companies in Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, Ibadan, and Benin are among the impacted businesses.
Since the government privatised the distribution companies in 2013, they have not been efficient as citizens and businesses groan.
But through the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), the government still holds a 40 per cent stake in the businesses.
Nigeria’s power system has mostly remained dysfunctional, producing and distributing an average of 4,000 megawatts to around 200 million people.
According to the government, Fidelity Bank has exercised its right to take over the five DISCOs since they were unable to repay loans they received from the bank to buy their assets during the 2013 privatization.