Power Supply Restored in Parts of Nigeria… As Minister Explains Cause of Grid Collapse 

Electricity supply has been restored in some parts of Nigeria while efforts are in progress to ensure the problems are fully resolved and power supply restored in the country after Thursday’s grid collapse, which resulted in nationwide blackout.

The grid collapse, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday, resulted in a massive loss of supply to power distributors nationwide.

Hours after the grid collapse, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Eko DISCO), has announced that power supply has been restored from the grid.

“Dear Valued Customer, “kindly be informed that power supply has been restored from the grid. Thank you for your patience”, the company wrote on its X platform.

Earlier, Adebayo Adelabu, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, had said that an explosion that led to a fire outbreak at Kainji/Jebba located in the North-central part of Nigeria, caused the nationwide blackout that happened in the early hours of Thursday.

The Minister,  who appealed for patience, said the fire had been fully arrested and “over half of the connections are now up.”

 In a series of tweets on X platform (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, the Minister explained: “At 00:35Hrs this morning, Fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.

He further added: “We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress. The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time. My sincere appreciation to those who responded or expressed concern via different.”

The nation’s power supply had dropped by 93.5 per cent to 273MW in the early hours of Thursday, following the grid collapse, as data obtained from Nigeria Electricity System Operator, the semi-autonomous arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), showed that Afam VI, Dadinkowa, Ibom Power, Jebba, Olorunsogo generated 0.70MW, 0.00MW, 32.90MW, 240MW and zero respectively.

The system operator also indicated that as of 8 a.m., this morning, there was no transmission, distribution and supply of electricity to consumers across the country.