The Organised Labour Unions in Nigeria have shut down the national grid, sending key national facilities into darkness and the country’s economy going blank.
With the national grid down there is strong indications that facilities like the Aso Rock, National Assembly, airports, hospitals, universities, will be in darkness for now. Though frantic efforts are being made to restore electric power to some of these facilities.
The action, which was a result of the nationwide strike declared by the labour unions, and this has led to almost the entire Nigeria, everyone and everything disconnected from the grid.
General Manager, Public Affairs, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ndidi Mbah, said that the national grid was shut down at about 2.19 am this morning, 3rd June 2024.
“At about 1:15 am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control
“Center was brought to zero. Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the Labour Union include the Ganmo,
“Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union,” Mbah stated.
On the power generating side, Mbah said power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. “The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 am.
“At about 3.23 am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. The situation is such that the labour Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” Mbah stated.
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