The Federal Government has constituted a six-member Forensic Investigative Committee to review and advise the government on the best way to address the perennial challenges of power grid collapse in the country.
Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu constituted the committee when he summoned the leadership of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Transmission company of Nigeria (TCN) to an emergency meeting at the weekend.
The Special Adviser on Strategic Communication and Media Relations to the Minister of Power, Bolaji Tunji, in a statement on Tuesday said, the Minister expressed displeasure at the incident, which he said, was capable of rubbishing the giant strides made in the last one year which has led to an increased generation and distribution of 5, 527 megawatts, a record generation in three years.
The Committee, according to him, would holistically review the national grid stability and identify investments and technical capacities required to make the grid smart and resilient.
In addition, a technical team has been deployed to access the critical nodes on the national grid to identify potential vulnerabilities and proffer recommendations to address these vulnerabilities to prevent future disruptions to the grid.
On Monday, October 14, there was a partial collapse due to the tripping of a line at the Jebba Transmission Substation and recurring fault at the Osogbo Transmission Substation. Efforts to restore the grid further resulted in a setback the following day.The System was however fully restored on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. There was no grid collapse on Tuesday as was widely speculated as the setback was a continuation of Monday’s restoration efforts on the grid.
Also what was described on Saturday, October 19, as grid collapse was a deliberate protective shut down of the grid as a result of the explosion of the Jebba transformer. And this was restored within two hours. “ What we had were more of grid disturbances than collapses”.
Preliminary assessment of Jebba incident suggested that the explosion was as a result of ageing equipment unrelated to the initial collapse.
The six-member committee are; Engr. Nafisat Ali, Executive Director, Independent System Operator (ISO), who leads the committee, Dr. Chidi Ike, Commissioner, NERC, Engr. Ishola (GM. National Control Centre (NCC) , Engr. Emmanuel Nosike, Director, Transmission, Federal Ministry of Power (FMoP), Engr. Ali Sharifai (GM, Transmission Service Provider (TSP)and Mr. Adedayo Olowoniyi, Chief Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power.
The team is expected to present a report to the Minister by November 1, 2024.
