FG pinpoint ‘main cause’ of National Grid collapse

The Federal Government has revealed that poor maintenance practices, outdated equipment, and insufficient resources are major contributors to the recent frequent collapses of the national power grid.

According to reports, this statement from the government comes a day after the latest grid collapse, marking the tenth occurrence in 2024 alone.

Nafisatu Asabe Ali, Chair of the committee investigating the grid failures, presented a report yesterday at the Ministry headquarters in Abuja, stating that excessive voltage beyond the capacity of the equipment led to the blackouts on October 14 and 19, 2024.

Ali noted that the investigative team found similar issues affecting all stations. The investigation into the October 14 and 19 incidents showed that the failures were due to malfunctioning lightning arrestors at the Jebba and Oshogbo transmission stations and an explosion of a current transformer at Jebba Station.

Ali said: “For the event on the 14th, lightning arrestors in Jebba and Oshogbo shattered. The one in Jebba was for the shunt reactor and this was caused by high voltage. Subsequently, we had the tripping of multiple 330kV lines. It kept going until it became major.

“The remote cause of that is the unavailability of the second reactor in Jebba, and that is because Jebba, by the design of the network and sometimes the topology of the network at a particular time is very prone to high voltage.

“We had two shunt reactors in Jebba before this event, however, one packed up. It is faulty, and so the voltage rose to about 400KV, which is beyond the threshold. High voltage degrades equipment insulation.

“If you expose equipment to high voltages for a long time, it degrades the insulation. And, of course, there’s a risk of failure. So, that was a remote cause for that. But the underlying causes are aged equipment. In our findings, we confirmed that Jebba was commissioned in 1968. Some of the equipment was commissioned alongside the substation. So, aged equipment. And maintenance culture is also an issue.”

The committee identified several factors impacting management, including vandalism of power infrastructure, insufficient availability of governors at power generation facilities, disorganized maintenance schedules, and inadequate human resources.

In response, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, indicated that the ministry would seek additional funding from the 2024 Supplementary Budget and the 2025 Appropriation Bill to address the financial challenges associated with the necessary strategies to mitigate the ongoing grid failures.

He expressed confidence that the recurrent failures of the Nigerian power grid could be addressed through the implementation of comprehensive reforms, noting, “this ongoing grid collapse, which is regrettable and concerning to me personally as the Honorable Minister of Power responsible for this sector.”

Adelabu further stated that he would submit a revised report to support his proposal to President Bola Tinubu, considering the financial implications involved.

He said, “Today’s meeting is to receive a report on the agency committee set up about two and a half weeks ago, to reveal the root cause of the incessant grid disturbances that we have experienced in the past few months. This is not good for us as a country. It is not good for us as a power sector. It is not good for us as a ministry of power and other agencies.”

The committee also listed recommendations for the audit and tests of existing equipment and improvement in maintenance of the transmission equipment and lines, installation of harmonics filters by Disco and Genco customers, decentralization of TCN central store, enforcement of Free Governor Mode of Operation and removal of ad-lash taped optic fibre for Optical Ground Wires.