The Transmission Company of Nigeria denied the claims of a national grid collapse on Monday, clarifying that the incident only involved a line tripping at the Benin-Egbin 330kV isolator.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the spokesperson of the company, Ndidi Mbah in Abuja via the company’s official X handle on Tuesday.
Mbah said the arcing on the Benin-Egbin 330kV did not lead to a collapse of the grid system but did affect the power supply in some areas of the country.
According to her, the line tripping started yesterday at 2:47 p.m. and was brought on by a large system surge that caused the arcing of the Benin-Egbin 330kV line isolator fingers at the Egbin Transmission Substation switchyard.
She noted that the substation’s power supply has been restored and that the problem has been fixed.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), hereby notes that at about 6:10 pm yesterday, 5th August 2024, power supply was restored to areas that had been affected by the arcing on the Benin-Egbin 330kV isolator which caused lines tripping and consequent loss of supply to some areas. However, contrary to media reports, the incident did not cause a system collapse.
“The lines tripping started earlier at about 2:47 p.m. yesterday, with a heavy system surge that led to the arcing of Benin–Egbin 330kV line isolator fingers at the Egbin Transmission Substation switchyard.
“This resulted in a tripping at the Egbin Generating Station, which caused the loss of power supply to all the Egbin Transmission Substation’s outgoing lines.
“The line tripping was quickly rectified, enabling the grid controller to restore full bulk power supply through the transmission lines at about 6.10 pm yesterday,” he said.
Recall, it was previously reported that the national grid collapsed for the fifth time in 2024.
The reports stated that a number of DisCos claimed that nationwide blackouts occurred as a result of their feeders becoming inactive.
