Grid Collapse: NERC set to conduct public hearing to address recurrences

Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed again, throwing several cities into darkness.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Saturday said it will conduct an investigative public hearing to address the recurring grid collapses and widespread outages.

The commission said in a statement posted on its X handle on Saturday that the date and venue of the public hearing will be announced in the national dailies.

Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed again, throwing several cities into darkness.

Electricity companies announced that the grid collapsed around 08:15 a.m. on Saturday. This latest collapse comes days after the grid collapsed on Tuesday.

There have been over six cases of grid collapse in 2024 alone.

In its statement on Saturday, NERC said it notes with concern the recent escalating incidence of grid disturbances, which often lead to power outages in several states, thus reversing many of the gains recently achieved in reducing the infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.

“Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815 hrs and associated cascade of power plants shutdown arising from the loss of load.”

The commission said efforts were made to restore power supply across the country with power significantly restored, as at 1300 hrs, in 33 states and the FCT.

“In line with the provisions of the Electricity Act 2023, the unbundling of the System Operator function (ISO) out of Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc is ongoing with the expectation that an independent SO would engender more discipline in grid management and optimised investment in infrastructure.

“In pursuit of finding a permanent resolution to the challenges of the national grid, the commission shall shortly conduct an investigative public hearing with a view to identifying immediate and remote causes of recurring incidence of grid disturbances and widespread outages.

“The date and venue of the public hearing will shortly be announced in the national dailies and stakeholders are encouraged to participate,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last election, Peter Obi, described Nigeria’s electricity grid collapse as “a national shame.”

Mr Obi described the incident as the failure of leadership and policy implementation.

In recent years, the power sector has experienced many challenges in areas of electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and significant power sector planning shortfalls.

In November 2013, the federal government privatised all power generation and 11 distribution companies, with the government retaining the ownership of the transmission company. This was to improve efficiency in the sector.

However, since the privatisation, the grid has continued to collapse amid efforts to reposition the power sector.