Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has revealed that a fire outbreak is what caused the national grid to collapse on Thursday night.
Adelabu said: “At 00:35Hrs this morning, a 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 line 1 was observed burning.
“This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.
“Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07Hrs to zero. At 00:41Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41Hz then resulted in system collapse of the grid”.
The Minister of Power said the fire has been fully arrested and that over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time.
“Delay in update was deliberate, so as not to cause panic and to also be able to update on progress of remedial actions taken so far.
“This is to ensure economic and security saboteurs don’t take advantage of every situation reported,” Adelabu said.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has disclosed restoration of the national grid has reached advanced stages, adding that power supply is now available in some parts of the country.
Confirming the position of the Power Minister, the transmission company said the collapse, which occurred after a fire incident on Kanji/Jebba 330kV line 2, is being investigated.