Nigeria: Nationwide Blackout As Electricity Workers Union Deliberately Shuts Down National Grid

Electricity workers in the Federal Republic of Nigeria have shut down the country’s grid, thereby triggering blackout across Africa’s most populous nation.

The national grid shutdown occurred at about 2.19 this morning, 3rd June 2024, according to a statement issued by Ndidi Mbah, the General Manager of Public Affairs Manager for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Mbah said at about 1:15 a.m., the Benin Transmission Operator, under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN, reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff members that resisted were beaten, while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room, and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Centre was brought to zero.

Other transmission substations that were shut down by the labour union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo transmission substations.

Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union, she said.

On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units, while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency.

The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 a.m.

At about 3.23 a.m., however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation.

The situation is such that the labour union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.

“We will continue to make efforts to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” she assured Nigerians.

The electricity workers union issued a notice of strike during the weekend over the failure of Federal Government to implement new minimum wage and non-reversal of hike in electricity tariff.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com