Abuja, Nigeria – On Monday, the national electricity grid experienced a partial collapse, causing extensive power outages in various parts of the country. The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) described the incident as a system failure, impacting its customers from Monday afternoon.
By evening, many AEDC customers remained without power. “We understand that some of our customers are still without power due to a system failure from the national grid at 2:55 pm today, August 5, 2024. Please be assured that the system is gradually stabilizing, and we are working diligently with all relevant stakeholders to restore power to the affected areas as quickly as possible,” AEDC stated, expressing gratitude to its customers for their patience and understanding.
Attempts to gather more details from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) were unfruitful, as spokesperson Ndidi Mbah had not provided further information by the time of this report.
A review by our correspondent confirmed a significant drop in hourly power generation by various plants. The output decreased from 3,749 megawatts at 2 pm to 3,241MW and further to 1,255MW by 3 pm, a substantial decline from the 4,067MW recorded at 11 am. However, power generation saw a gradual restoration, reaching 3,000MW by 8 pm. Notably, the Egbin Power Plant, which had been generating 222MW until 2 pm, recorded 0.00MW for the rest of the day.
This marks the fifth instance in 2024 where consumers have faced power outages due to issues with the national grid.
Princewill Okorie, Executive Director of the Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, expressed regret over the persistent grid issues despite rising electricity tariffs. Okorie lamented that unmetered customers would still be required to pay for electricity during the period of the collapse and questioned the government’s efforts to prevent such incidents.
“What are the causes of these grid failures or collapses? Are the materials used in building the grid of good quality and standard? Who is managing the grid? The players in the sector are more interested in collecting money from the consumers rather than making the system stable,” Okorie said. He further criticized the sector’s focus on revenue collection over system stability and transparency.
“In the past few months, they keep increasing tariffs yet the power sector is inefficient. They are interested in collecting money but whether the money is judiciously utilized or not, nobody cares. They keep overbilling customers. The desperation to collect revenue from customers for services not delivered is a challenge. Now that the grid collapsed, the unmetered customers will still be made to pay for darkness. That is injustice. The government should address this issue of grid collapse once and for all,” Okorie asserted.
The recurring power outages highlight the ongoing challenges within Nigeria’s electricity sector, underscoring the need for comprehensive reforms to ensure stable and reliable power supply for the nation’s citizens.
