The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has refuted claims of a national grid collapse, clarifying that the power outage experienced on Wednesday, February 12, was due to a transmission line tripping, not a total system failure.
PLATFORM TIMES reports that TCN’s General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, made this known in a statement titled Restoration of Omotosho-Ikeja West 330KV Transmission Line After Tripping, made available to journalists.
Mbah explained that the outage occurred at 11:34 am when the Omotosho-Ikeja West 330kV transmission line tripped at the Omotosho end.
She noted that, at the time of the incident, the Benin-Egbin 330kV line was already undergoing a scheduled outage for mechanical line tracing.
This sequence of events led to a cascaded outage affecting major areas, including Lagos, Abuja, and Osogbo.
However, she emphasized that the disruption did not result in a nationwide grid collapse, as some media reports had suggested.
“All other parts of the grid remained unaffected, contrary to reports of a grid collapse in the media,” she stated.
Mbah further assured that the affected transmission line had been fully restored, and normal power supply had resumed in the impacted areas.
“We assure Nigerians of our commitment to the efficient delivery of bulk power across the nation as we continue to implement measures to enhance the stability of the national grid,” she added.
The power outage caused disruptions across Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and other areas, with electricity distribution companies confirming the blackout.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) and Ikeja Electric (IE) acknowledged the outage, attributing it to the grid disturbance. Babatunde Lasaki, General Manager of Corporate Communications and Strategies at EKEDC, confirmed that areas under their coverage lost power around 11:35 am.
Similarly, Kingsley Okotie, Head of Corporate Communications at Ikeja Electric, stated that their customers were affected. The company also issued a public notice stating:
“Dear Esteemed Customer, please be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 12th February, at 11:34 hrs, affecting all our feeders. Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders. Kindly bear with us.”
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) also confirmed the disruption via its X (formerly Twitter) handle, writing:
“Dear Valued Customer, we regret to inform you that a system disturbance occurred on the national grid at 11:34 am today, causing a power outage across our franchise areas.”
Power supply disruptions have been a recurring challenge in Nigeria, often attributed to transmission infrastructure issues, maintenance activities, and load imbalances.
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