The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has explained what caused the nationwide blackout, which occurred on Thursday morning.
The minister said there was an explosion that led to a fire outbreak at Kainji/Jebba, Niger State.
Adelabu in a series of tweets on X platform on Thursday said: “At 00:35Hrs 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 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.
He also gave assurance that the problem would be fixed, saying: “We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress. The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time. My sincere appreciation to those who responded or expressed concern via different.”
The country’s power supply dropped by 93.5 per cent to 273 megawatts, MW in the early hours Thursday.
It plummeted from 4,182MW recorded on Monday, this week, following a complete system collapse, due to equipment failure or grid disturbance in the sector.
Data from Nigeria Electricity System Operator, the semi-autonomous arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, showed that Afam VI, Dadinkowa, Ibom Power, Jebba, Olorunsogo generated 0.70MW, 0.00MW, 32.90MW, 240MW and zero respectively.