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By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Federal Ministry of Power has explained the reason behind the recent national electricity grid collapse.
A statement signed by the media aide, Isa Sanusi, the media aide to the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, on Saturday, said the that vandals caused a disruption on the transmission tower between Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.
The ministry assured that the system operator was on top of the matter and working to restore power across the country.
“Further to our earlier press release, we wish to apprise the general public that the immediate cause of national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani — Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line, thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation. This consequently led to a cascade of plants shut down across the country.
“We wish to notify the public that power on the grid is being restored sequentially by the System Operator as other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by the Niger Power Holding Company Ltd,” the ministry said.
This is the third time the national electricity grid would be collapsing in less than a month.