The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has said that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN ) and the Generation Companies (GENCOS) were working to restore the technical hitches recorded in the national transmission grid. A statement from the management of the ministry indicated that the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company Ltd (NGPTC) had reported a fire on its Escravos Lagos Pipeline system near Okada, Edo on Jan. 2.
Meanwhile the National electricity grid was shut down by a fire on a gas pipeline. Gas supply to several power stations was cut off because of the fire on the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System near Okada in Edo state. “The sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from these stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 20:20 on 2nd January,” it said. The outage went unnoticed in parts of Nigeria, where blackouts are common and many businesses and households are forced to rely on their own power generators or, for the less wealthy, not have any electricity.
The incident, according to the statement, requires a shutdown of the pipeline supplying gas to Egbin 1,320MW; Olorunsogo NIPP 676MW, Olorunsogo 338MW, Omotosho NIPP 450MW, Omotosho 338 MW and Paras 60MW power stations. It said the sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from the stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 8:20 a.m. on Jan. 2. It said that the trip off was regrettable, given the sustained period of increasing production and distribution of power since September 2017 to date.
The statement added that once the national grid is restored, output from the hydroelectric power stations and all other unaffected gas fired thermal power stations will be increased. This, it said, would minimise the impact of loss of generation from the affected power stations. It urged members of the public to bear with it as precise steps were being taken to restore operation at the grid.
