The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced a significant power outage affecting the North East, North West, and parts of North Central Nigeria following the tripping of its 330kV direct current (DC) transmission line.
Grassroots Parrot gathered that the disruption began early Monday, leading to widespread electricity outages across the regions.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager for Public Affairs, detailed the sequence of events, noting that the fault occurred at around 4:53 am.
“The Ugwuaji–Makurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped, transferring 243 MW to Line 1. However, just five minutes later, Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW,” Mbah said.
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Efforts to restore power were quickly initiated, but attempts to re-energize both lines at 5:15 am and 5:17 am were unsuccessful, as the same fault caused further tripping.
Two teams of linesmen from Apir and Enugu were dispatched to trace the fault along the 215-kilometer route, which contains 245 transmission towers.
Unfortunately, difficult terrain, including the River Benue area, and a sit-at-home directive in the South East delayed the teams’ progress.
While TCN has restored power along the 132kV transmission line from New Haven to Apir, the larger 330kV lines remain out of service, leaving much of northern Nigeria in the dark.
Compounding the issue, the Shiroro-Mando transmission line is also down due to security concerns, further intensifying the outage.
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Mbah apologized to the public, assuring that TCN is working hard to resolve the situation. “Our teams are doing everything possible to locate the fault despite the challenging conditions and insecurity,” she said.
This marks at least the eighth major outage in Nigeria in 2024, as the national grid continues to face recurring challenges.
