KEY POINTS
- The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has restored power to 90% of substations after a nationwide grid collapse.
- The power outage affected businesses and households across Nigeria, but TCN’s quick response is bringing stability back to the grid.
- Efforts to prevent future grid collapses are underway as TCN works to improve the reliability of the national power system.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has been able to reconnect 90 percent of the substations across the country after the collapse of the national electricity grid across the country.
The blackout which occurred across the country impacted on homes, businesses and other services. However, TCN has moved in a very fast pace to ensure that stability is achieved and electricity is being supplied to most parts of the country.
The grid collapse which occurred earlier this week saw millions of Nigerians going for several hours without electricity.
While the nation’s power system continues to face some challenges, TCN has been working hard to resolve the challenges in order to bring back normalcy and reduce the effects on the citizens.
Lightning strikes: quick response restores power nationwide
As a result of the outage, TCN sent its engineers to the scene to diagnose the problem and restore the grid. In the next few hours, some impressive results were achieved, and power was restored to several large substations in the country.
The company says that 90 percent of the substations that were damaged are now functional and can pump power back into the national grid.
A TCN official said the firm is still working to repair the remaining substations and ensure that the grid is fully functional. The swift response has come as a relief to business, households and public service that depend on electricity to operate.
Although it was a catastrophe that affected the entire nation, the grid collapse could have lasted longer as well as triggered a more severe blackout that callable has severe economic impacts in the nation.
The restoration of the power to some areas is considered as the major victory in circumstances when the grids have collapsed.
Consequences of grid failure across the country
The recent failure of the national grid in Nigeria has again brought to the fore the vulnerability of the country’s power sector.
Nigeria has struggled with a poor electricity supply for decades mainly with outages to businesses and industries in the country. This most recent grid collapse has left many Nigerians in the dark and fuming and has brought into question the sustainability of the power structure.
Tribune Online reported that the power outage affected all sectors of the economy and most significantly the manufacturing, banking, and telecom industries.
A number of companies used costly generators to power their activities since electricity was out of reach as the fuel prices were high to begin with.
Households too were affected, families was forced to experienced disruption in basic activities like cooking, communication and entertainment. The power cuts are a strong indication of the problems Nigeria has in trying to establish a more stable electricity supply network.
Prevention of future collapse
After the grid collapse, TCN has rest assured its commitment to the enhancement of the reliability of the national grid and making such occurrences a thing of the past.
The company is at the moment involved in several projects that seek to address the problem of the old infrastructure and the overall management of the grid.
As part of the strategy, TCN plans to engage its counterparts in other countries to source for funds to upgrade the grid and to develop technologies that would improve the stability of the grid. Also, TCN is concentrating on developing its human capital to handle grid emergencies and prevent them from recurring.
The government is also not idle in the power challenges facing Nigeria today. Efforts intimated trying to promote investment in renewable energy and power mix diversification are considered crucial in avoiding future blackouts.
In its effort to reduce future outages, TCN believes that Nigerians can rely on a more stable grid for powering economic activities and their everyday lives.
Looking forward
With power coming back to most part of Nigeria, there is optimism that the measures that TCN and government are undertaking will result to a well-grounded electricity network in future.
The recent grid collapse is a strong pointer to the fact that there is still a lot to be done in order to build a strong power infrastructure in Nigeria.
For now, Nigerians can only console themselves with the fact that something is being done to ensure that such a grid failure is not repeated in the future. As hopes for better grid reliability are still ongoing,
it can be redeemed that Nigeria’s electricity problem can be solved eventually in order to have a bright future for having a prosperous and energy secure Nigeria
