A SIGNIFICANT power outage has affected communities across Northern Nigeria following the tripping of two critical 330kV transmission lines, worsening the ongoing energy crisis caused by multiple national grid collapses.
The affected communities are mainly in the North-East, North-West, and parts of North-Central.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) disclosed this in a statement released by its General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, on Tuesday, October 22.
The outage, which began around 4:53 am, was triggered by the tripping of the Ugwuaji–Makurdi 330kV Line 2, which resulted in the loss of 243 MW of power.
Minutes later, at 4:58 am, Line 1 also tripped, leading to a further loss of 468 MW, with attempts to restore power to both lines at 5:15 am and 5:17 am unsuccessful as the lines tripped again.
“Following the tripping incidents yesterday, two teams of linesmen were dispatched. One from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and another from the Enugu transmission to expedite fault tracing along the 215 km route, which includes 245 transmission towers.
“Throughout yesterday, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating challenging terrains in search of the fault, reaching as far as the River Benue. They were unable to locate the cause of the tripping and have continued in the fault tracing early this morning,” the statement said.
In a related development, TCN highlighted that efforts to restore power in the Enugu region were slowed down due to a sit-at-home directive in the South-East region on October 21 and 22.
“This hindered not only the patrol team but also made it difficult to refuel patrol vehicles for the long-distance line trace. Arrangements were, however, made for security operatives to guide the team, who have commenced fault tracing this morning,” Mbah said.
The agency also noted that it had restored supply to the 132kV transmission line between New Haven and Apir, but the 330kV lines remained down.
Mbah explained that the Shiroro-Mando transmission line, another key power source, was also out of service due to security concerns, adding to the challenges faced by the Northern region.
“TCN is making every effort to trace the cause of the outage to enable our engineers to effect repairs and restore bulk power supply through both lines,” the statement added.
The incident comes against the backdrop of Nigeria’s ongoing struggle with national grid collapses, which have led to repeated blackouts across the country.
In recent weeks, the national grid has suffered multiple breakdowns, prompting concerns over the stability of the country’s electricity supply.
On October 19, The ICIR reported how Nigerians were plunged into darkness as the national power grid collapsed for the third time in just one week.
The outages heightened frustrations nationwide, with businesses, households, and essential services struggling under the country’s unreliable electricity supply.
The third grid failure occurred early Saturday, October 19, causing widespread blackouts across several states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
THE ICIR reports that this collapse marks the eighth disruption to the grid in 2024.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M