The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has confirmed that a transformer explosion at the 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation was responsible for the collapse of the national electricity grid on Saturday morning. In a statement released by TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, the incident was described as a “temporary grid disturbance” that occurred at around 8:15 a.m. She explained that the explosion occurred at the bus section of a current transformer, activating the protection system, which automatically opened the busbars to contain the situation and prevent a fire or damage to nearby equipment.
“This prompt action led to a temporary disturbance on the grid,” Mbah stated. Engineers at the Jebba station quickly isolated the faulty transformer and reconfigured the busbar arrangement, allowing power to be restored to the station and other affected areas.
This collapse is the third incident in a week that has thrown Nigeria into darkness. Earlier reports indicated that the grid had completely failed, causing power supply across the country to drop to zero megawatts (MW), halting electricity transmission to distribution companies (Discos). Saturday’s outage follows two previous grid collapses between Monday and Tuesday, which also caused widespread blackouts.
By 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, partial recovery efforts had restored 140 MW of power to select Discos, with Benin Disco receiving 50 MW, Ibadan Disco 60 MW, and Ikeja Disco 30 MW. However, some regions, including Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt, remained without power as of the time of reporting. According to further updates, power generation increased to 220 MW by 10:40 a.m., with efforts continuing to stabilize the grid and restore full electricity supply to the nation.
The TCN reassured the public that measures are in place to prevent such incidents in the future, although the frequent collapses this week have raised concerns about the stability and reliability of the national grid.
