Explosion at Kanji causes collapse of national grid — Minister

The Minister of Power, Dr Adebayo Adelabu, has said the collapse of the national grid which occurred in the wee-hours of Thursday was caused by a fire from an explosion at Kainji/Jebba located in the North-central part of the country.

Adelabu, in a series of posts on his official ‘X’ handle, said the fire outbreak led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.

The Minister updating Nigerians via his social media handle stated that the situation was swiftly arrested and as at the time of filing this report half of the connections are now up and running.

He wrote: “At 00:35Hrs this morning, Fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW.

“We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress. The fire has been fully arrested and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time. My sincere appreciation to those who responded or expressed concern via different.”

Persecondnews earlier reported that the grid being run by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), collapsed to an all-time low of 273 megawatts of electricity coming from two out of the over 27 electricity generation.