By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has expressed optimism that the frequent collapses of the Nigerian power grid system could be curbed with the implementation of far reaching reforms of the transmission subsector of the electricity industry.

Chief Adelabu who stated this when he received the report of an investigative panel he set up to unravel the causes of Nigeria’s incessant electricity grid collapses, noted that high number of collapses “is not for us”.

This came barely 24 hours after the latest collapse that occurred on Tuesday made it 10th time the national grid would collapse in 2024 alone.

He added: “We all know the negative impact of incessant grid collapses and the reliability and functionality of the power sector and this is unacceptable to us”.

He said the report will be studied, discussed and amended with the final copy presented to President Bola Tinubu for approval of full implementation.

“Some of the recommendations will need budgetary provisions and we are ready for this”, he stated.

Presenting the report, the Committee Chairman and the Executive Director, Independent System Operator, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Engr. Nafisatu Asabe Ali blamed the collapse that occurred on October 14th on the shattering of lightning arrestors in Jebba and Oshogbo transmission stations. The incident on October 19th was blamed on the explosion of a CT also in Jebba Station.

According to her, “For the event on the 14th, lightning arrestors in Jebba and Oshogbo shattered. The one in Jebba was for the shunt reactor and this was caused by high voltage. Subsequently, we had the tripping of multiple 330kV lines. It kept going until it became major.

“The remote cause of that is the unavailability of the second reactor in Jebba and that is because Jebba by the design of the network and sometimes the topology of the network at a particular time is very prone to high voltage. We had two shunt reactors in Jebba before this event, however, one packed up. It is faulty and so the voltage rose to about 400KV which is beyond the threshold. High voltage degrades equipment insulation”.

She attributed this to “aged” equipment, adding that “from our findings, we confirmed that Jebba was commissioned in 1968 and some of the equipment were commissioned alongside the substation”.

She disclosed that “for on the 19th, a CT exploded in Jebba that led to the loss of numerous transmission lines because the relay there had to reactor to that fault there was a protective shutdown”.

The committee listed several factors affecting the management to include vandalism of power infrastructures, lack of free governors at power generation plants, uncoordinated maintenence schedules and lack of adequate human capacity.

The committee recommended amongst other things the audit and tests of existing equipment and improvement in maintenance of the transmission equipment and lines.

The called for significant investments from the government and the private sectors.