Vandalism on transmission tower caused national grid to fail – FG

The latest national grid failure, according to the Ministry of Power, was caused by vandalism on a transmission tower.

The grid went down for the third time in three weeks on Friday, leaving parts of the country in the dark.

Earlier on Saturday, the Ministry stated that it was investigating the cause.

“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,” the Ministry’s statement said.

“This consequently led to a cascade of plant 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.”