FG finally reveals reason for national electricity blackout

The federal government has said that the recent nationwide blackout was caused by the vandalization of transmission power in the south-south region of the country, TopNaija reports.

This is coming after the ministry of power said a detailed investigation into the recurring grid collapse was ongoing.

Isa Sanusi, media spokesperson of the ministry of power in a statement released on Saturday April 9, said the recent grid collapse has been traced to Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line.

The statement read;

“Further to our earlier press release, we wish to apprise the general public that the immediate cause of national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400 MW of generation.

“This consequently led to a cascade of plants shutdown across the country.

“We wish to notify the public that power on the grid is being restored sequentially by the system lperator as other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd.”

Electricity distribution companies announced the breakdown, the fifth this year after prolonged hours of outage experienced in some parts of the country.

The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company said, “Dear Esteemed Customers, the management of Kaduna electric regrets to inform you that the current outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to a collapse of the national grid.”

“The collapse occurred at about 18:29 pm this evening.Normal power supply shall be restored as soon as the grid is restored.

“We sincerely apologise for all inconveniences,” the spokesperson of the company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi said.

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company confirmed the collapse on Twitter late Friday Night.

“Please be informed that there has just been a national grid collapse causing an outage in our franchise areas. We apologize for the inconvenience caused and appeal that you bear with us while we await restoration from the TCN. We regret all inconvenience caused,” it said.