The Transmission Company of Nigeria has announced the complete shutdown of Nigeria’s power grid.
This follows the commencement of an indefinite strike today (Monday) by organised labour. It said some of its staff members were wounded by people enforcing the strike.
Organized labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress had vowed to commence an indefinite strike on Monday over the Federal Government’s failure to conclude and pass a new National Minimum Wage Act into law and reverse the electricity tariff hike to N65/kWh
In a statement issued by its GM Public Affairs on Monday, TCN said “informs the general public that the labour union has shut down the national grid, resulting in a blackout nationwide”. It said, “The national grid shutdown occurred at about 2.19am this morning, June 3, 2024.
“At about 1:15 am this morning, 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 that resisted were b+aten 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 Center 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. 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 am. At about 3.23am, however, TN 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 effort to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide.”
