The collapse of the national grid has been attributed to a fire outbreak on the Kainji-Jebba 330 kilovolt (kV) line.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who made this disclosure in a series of posts on X, on Thursday, said the fire led to a loss of about 356.63 MW.
Media Talk Africa reports that the national grid suffered a total system collapse for the first time in more than a year.
Giving updates, Adebulu said the fire has been fully arrested, and with over half of the connections restored.
He posted on X: “At 00:35 Hrs this morning, fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29 Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06 Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63 MW.
“Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07 Hrs to zero. At 00:41 Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41 Hz, then resulted in system collapse of the grid. We are on top of the situation, and speedy restoration is in progress.”
Adelabu said the delay in providing an update was deliberate to ensure economic and security saboteurs don’t take advantage of the reported situation.
