Reps to investigate reoccurring national grid collapse

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Power, to investigate the causes of the reoccurring national grid collapse in the country.

This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by Rep. Sani Bala (APC-Kano) at plenary on Tuesday in Abuja.

Presenting the motion, Bala said that the national grid has witnessed reoccurring collapse lately especially when there were system disturbances along the transmission lines connecting a number of generating stations.

He said since the 2013 when the power sector was privatised, the country had witnessed over a 100 national grid collapse.

He said that in 2022 the national grid had collapsed seven times more than the three times recorded in 2021 causing national power outages with enormous socio-economic implications.

He also expressed concern that the latest in the series of power failures had been adjudged among the worst in the country.

This according to him, indicated that there was no framework or spinning reserve meant to forestall such occurrences.

The lawmaker said it was incomprehensible that all the key power plants in the country, including Egbin, Utorogu, Chevron Oredo, Oben gas-fired power plants, Ughelli and Chevron Escravos power plants could all shut down at once.

He said the issue of system collapsed might not be unconnected with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) lack of wheeling capacity, inadequate transmission lines and spinning reserves.

Others, he said included refusal to fast-track construction of digital control centres instead of the company’s current analog system.

Bala said available statistics from research showed that if the power generation was adequately wheeled and transmitted for distribution to consumers, there would be a 30 per cent reduction in the cost of generating power.

He said that this would lead to a corresponding reduction in the prices of utilities in the electricity supply industry.

The House, therefore, urged its Committee on Power to investigate the TCN’s capacity to address the ugly trend.

The House said that this was to forestall future occurrences and protect the country’s already fragile socio-economic environment.