KEY POINTS
- Nigeria’s national power grid collapsed on Friday after multiple 330kV transmission lines tripped and some generating units disconnected.
- Power restoration began around 1:15 p.m., with supply restored to Abuja, parts of Lagos, and several other cities.
- NISO has launched an investigation and says digitisation and automation are planned to improve grid stability.
Large portions of Nigeria went dark on Friday due to a system-wide collapse of the country’s electrical grid, according to the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO).
NISO told reporters that the outage was caused by several 330-kilovolt (330kV) transmission lines tripping simultaneously and some grid connected power generating units being disconnected.
According to the operator, the event resulted in a complete outage throughout the interconnected national network due to a system-wide disturbance.
According to NISO, the grid restoration process started around 1:15 p.m., which is in line with standard procedures for grid recovery and restoration.
As of the most recent update, power has been restored to many places, such as Abuja, Osogbo, Benin, Onitsha, Sakete, Jebba, Kainji, Shiroro, and some parts of Lagos. Restoration is still going on in other parts of the country.
The operator said, “The full restoration and stabilization of the grid is still a top operational priority.”
Investigation into root causes ongoing
NISO said that a full investigation is going on to find out the main and secondary causes of the problem.
Early operational results point to problems with the infrastructure, with the collapse being caused by high-voltage transmission lines tripping and generators disconnecting.
The operator also said again that they plan to start digitizing and automating grid operations as part of a larger effort to make the system more stable, visible, and controllable in real time.
BusinessDay found out that the national grid went down around 11:40 a.m. Nigerian time.
At about 1:00 p.m., checks on the national distribution load profile showed that none of the electricity distribution companies (DisCos), such as Abuja, Eko, Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Jos, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Yola, had any load allocation.
This meant that customers across the country were not getting any electricity at that time.
