By Chinasaokwu Helen okoro
The national electricity grid experienced a partial collapse on Monday plunging some parts of the country into darkness.
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company described the development as a system failure, stating that it affected its customers on Monday afternoon.
In the evening, the AEDC reported that some of its customers were still without power supply.“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 stabilising, and we are working diligently with all relevant stakeholders to restore power to the affected areas as quickly as possible,” the AEDC stated, thanking the customers for their patience and understanding.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Ndidi Mbah, promised to revert with details of the incident. She had yet to revert up till when this report was filed.
Meanwhile, checks by our correspondent confirmed that hourly power generation by the various plants dropped from 3,749 megawatts at 2 pm to 3,241MW and 1,255MW as of 3 pm. It was 4,067MW as of 11 am.The power generation experienced gradual restoration, returning to 3,00MW at 8 pm.
Our correspondent observed that the Egbin Power Plant which generated 222MW till 2 pm dropped to 0.00MW throughout our correspondent reports that this is the fifth time in 2024 that consumers will experience power outages occasioned by incidents from the grid.
While speaking in a recent interview with our correspondent, the Executive Director, Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, Princewill Okorie, regretted that the grid keeps having issues despite the hike in electricity tariff.Okorie lamented that unmetered customers would still be made to pay for the period of the collapse, wondering what the government has been doing to stop the incidents.
“What are the causes of these grid failures or collapses? Are the materials used in building the grip 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.“What you hear more about the power sector is payment.
The money that the international communities are bringing to the industry and the money that is unlawfully collected from the consumers, where are they being utilised?
The operational expenditures of the Discos, and how do they spend them?“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 utilised 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 stated.
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