Adewale Sanyaolu and Fred Itua, Abuja
Nigerians were yesterday thrown into darkness as the national grid collapsed at about 11.25am Sunday.
The collapse of the country’s power grid system is one becoming too many due to reasons bordering on ageing transmission network facility.
As at 11.30am yesterday morning, most part of Lagos had been cut off from power supply as a result of the glitch.
Some electricity consumers who spoke to Daily Sun in separate interviews expressed frustration at the frequent collapse of Nigeria’s grid system which has often leaves them counting their losses
A consumer who identified himself as Mukaila Adebanjo, said his community of Ofada in Ogun State, has never enjoyed electricity supply in years, as the system flop makes no difference if there was system collapse or not since his community has been in perpetual darkness.
When contacted, General Manager, Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN), Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, confirmed to Daily Sun that at at 11.25am Sunday, the nation’s electricity grid experienced multiple trippings, which led to the collapse of the system.
She explained that TCN has since commenced grid restoration with power successfully restored to every part of the country, except Calabar, Ugwuaji, Markurdi, Jos, Gombe, Yola and Maidugiri axes, adding that efforts are ongoing to ensure full restoration nationwide.
‘‘We regret the inconvenience this has caused electricity consumers. Investigations would be conducted to establish the immediate and remote cause(s) of the multiple trippings as soon as the grid is fully restored – considering that the grid had been relatively stable in the last couple of months.’’
A resident in River Valley Estate, Ojodu, Mr. Uchenna Nnoli, said there was power outage for about three hours yesterday afternoon but at 5.02pm, he said power has been restored.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), have revealed plans to work together to cut down energy consumption by industries in Nigeria.
They made this public in Abuja at the weekend during the inauguration of the project steering committee for the execution of the project on improving Nigeria’s industrial energy performance and Resource Efficient Cleaner Production.
Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, while making her remarks, said the committee would execute the project in selected small, medium and large scale industries “through programmatic approaches and promotion of innovation in clean technology solutions.”