The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced on Monday the complete shutdown of the national grid by labor unions as the strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) begins.
The duo commenced a nationwide industrial action on Monday in protest against the N60,000 minimum wage proposal of the Federal Government.
In a statement issued on Monday morning, TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah said the action was deliberately done by the workers.
The statement was titled, “Grid Shutdown: Union Deliberately Shuts Down the National Grid.”
It read in part, “The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the labor union has shut down the national grid, resulting in a blackout nationwide. The national grid shut down occurred at about 2.19 a.m. this morning, June 3, 2024.
“At about 1:15am 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. Without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero.
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“Other transmission substations that were shut down by the labor 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 labor union.”
“The 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 at very high frequencies. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 a.m.
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“At about 3.23am, 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 labor union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make efforts to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centers nationwide,” the statement added.