INCOMPETENCE: NCPN blames TCN over collapsed National Grid

The Nigerian Consumer Protection Network (NCPN) has blamed the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), over the recent collapsed National Grid, saying it was due to incompetence.

More than 24 hours after the collapse of the National Grid, the nation remained in darkness.

NCPN asserted that TCN has failed to get its priority right, noting that it is certain they (TCN) need to deal with the issue of incompetence urgently.

On Sunday night, power generation dipped to nine megawatts.

Before the collapse, the System Operator (SO) in its performance report put peak performance at 3,703mw.

On the day under review, the NESI generated a total energy 2,869.01mw and distributed 2,824mw.

Raising the issue of incompetence on the part of TCN, Spokesman of NCPN, Kunle Olubiyo, a lawyer, challenged the TCN to prioritise its use of funds for the national grid.

The TCN said a major setback experienced by the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) triggered the lowest generation following which the national grid collapsed.

The setback immediately threw the country into darkness forcing consumers to fall back to alternative sources for power.

In a public notice to its customers, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) management explained: “The current power outage is due to a system failure from the National Grid.

The system collapsed at about 6:49pm today (12th June, 2022), causing the outage currently being experienced.

“We appeal for your understanding as well all stakeholders are working hard to restore normal supply.”

The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC) also pleaded with its customers. It attributed the outage in its area of coverage to the system failure.

Its Head, Corporate Communication, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, noted that the collapse occurred 18:47pm on Sunday.

He said: “We regret to inform you that the power outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to system collapse of the national grid.

“The collapse occurred at about 18:47pm this (Sunday), hence, the loss of supply on all our outgoing feeders.

“Power supply shall be restored as soon as the National Grid is powered back, our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.”

According to Malam Isa Sanusi, Special Assistant on Media Affairs to Power Minister Abubakar Aliyu, said the TCN was already issuing a press statement on the matter.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) gathered that TCN was awaiting the minister’s nod before issuing the statement.

However, the NCPN spokesman blamed obsolete equipment and lack of maintenance due to incometence for frequent collapse of the grid.

Olubiyo said: “The issue is not lack of fund but misplaced priority vis a visa misapplication of funds.

“Our emphasis should have being on how to improve on technical investments of the grid and not the administration of high capacity transformers. We have so many generation that is being stranded.”