Second power outage hits Nigeria

ABUJA, January 4, 2018 – Nigeria suffered a second transmission network system collapse on Wednesday afternoon as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) worked to restore electricity after a previous outage.

Tuesday night a gas pipeline fire cut off supplies to six Nigerian power plants, shutting down the national electricity grid. The second incident occurred when the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene line was tripped, cutting off generation from the Odukpani Power Station to the grid.

“The grid would have withstood the Odukpani infraction, if generation along Lagos region was available,” TCN said in a statement.

The plants affected in Tuesday’s outage have combined capacity of more than 3 GW, nearly half the country’s capacity. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is working to restore gas supply to the 1.32-GW Egbin, 676-MW Olorunsogo NIPP, 338-MW Olorunsogo, 450-MW Omotosho NIPP, 338-MW Omotosho and 60-MW Paras power stations, Nigeria’s Power, Works and Housing Ministry said.

“According to NGC [Nigerian Gas Company], work would be carried out day and night and is expected to be completed within 24 hours,” TCN’s statement said.

NNPC said Wednesday that the pipeline fire was suspected to have been caused by a bush fire.

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