The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has summoned the leadership of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Transmission Company of Nigeria to an emergency meeting.
The summon became imperative following series of disturbances on the national grid which threw some sections of the country into darkness twice within last week.
A statement issued by the minister’s Special Adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, in Abuja on Tuesday, quoted him to have expressed displeasure at the incident.
To tackle the challenges, the minister has constituted a forensic investigation committee with a mandate to advise the government on necessary solutions to make the national grid robust and reliable in addition to the ongoing efforts of the government like the Presidential Power Initiatives and the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project.
Members of the six-member committee are Nafisat Ali, Executive Director, Independent System Operator, who leads the committee, Chidi Ike, Commissioner, NERC, Ishola (GM. National Control Centre, Emmanuel Nosike, Director, Transmission, Federal Ministry of Power, Ali Sharifai (GM, Transmission Service Provider and Adedayo Olowoniyi, Chief Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power.
The team is expected to present a report to the Minister by November 1, 2024.
According to the minister, the committee is to also establish the root cause of both incidents especially a review of potential sabotage on the system.
It is expected to holistically review the national grid stability and identify investments and technical capacities required to make the grid smart and resilient.
The statement recalled that on Monday, October 14, there was a partial collapse due to the tripping of a line at the Jebba Transmission Substation and a recurring fault at the Osogbo Transmission Substation.
“Efforts to restore the grid further resulted in a setback the following day. The System was however fully restored on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. There was no grid collapse on Tuesday as was widely speculated as the setback was a continuation of Monday’s restoration efforts on the grid.
“Also, what was described on Saturday, October 19, as grid collapse was a deliberate protective shutdown of the grid as a result of the explosion of the Jebba transformer. And this was restored within two hours.
“What we had were more of grid disturbances than collapses Preliminary assessment of the Jebba incident suggested that the explosion was a result of ageing equipment unrelated to the initial collapse,” the statement added.
