The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has constituted a six-member committee to advise the Federal Government on necessary solutions to make the national grid robust and reliable.
Mr Adelabu’s action follows the incessant collapse of the national power grid in the past week where the grid collapsed three times.
In a statement by the Minister’s Special Adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, the leadership of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) were summoned to an emergency meeting over the weekend.
Members of the committee include Nafisat Ali, Executive Director, Independent System Operator (ISO), who leads the committee; Chidi Ike, Commissioner, NERC; Ishola, General Manager, National Control Centre (NCC).
Others are Emmanuel Nosike, Director, Transmission, Ministry of Power; Ali Sharifai, General Manager, Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and Adedayo Olowoniyi, Chief Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power.
He said the committee members are expected to present a report to the minister on November 1, 2024.
”The committee is to also establish the root cause of both incidents, especially a review of potential sabotage on the system.
”The committee will holistically review the national grid stability and identify investments and technical capacities required to make the grid smart and resilient,” Mr Tunji said in the statement.
According to him, the minister expressed displeasure at the incident, which he said, was capable of rubbishing the giant strides made in the last one year.
Mr Tunji recalled that on October 14, 2024, 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.
He said that efforts to restore the grid further resulted in a setback the following day. The System was however fully restored on October 16, 2014.
”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.
”What was described on October 19, 2024, 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 grid disturbances than collapses.
“Preliminary assessment of the Jebba incident suggested that the explosion was as a result of ageing equipment unrelated to the initial collapse,” Mr Tunji added.
He said that the committee was an addition to the ongoing efforts of the government like the Presidential Power Initiatives (PPI) and the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project (NETAP) to ensure reliable power supply.
He said that a technical team had also been deployed to access the critical nodes on the national grid, to identify potential vulnerabilities and proffer recommendations to prevent future disruptions.
