States across Nigeria experienced another round of blackout on Saturday as the national electricity power grid crashed to 70.60 megawatts around 4 pm.
It marked the seventh time the national grid would collapse in 2024. The previous collapses were on February 4, April 10, April 15, March 11, March 12, and March 28.
During the inauguration of the 31-member Presidential Economic Coordination Council held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday, President Bola Tinubu described the current low electricity generation in the country as shameful.
Tinubu said, “We have the challenge of energy security in Nigeria. We need to work together to improve our oil and gas sector, and we must also increase electricity generation, as well as distribution throughout the country. We are determined to do that with your cooperation, collaboration, and recommendations. As a nation, it is so shameful that we are still generating 4.5GW of electricity.”
Data on the ‘Nigeria Grid: Generation Profile’ supplied by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, indicated that the country’s power generation crashed to 70.60MW on Saturday.
Electricity generation initially increased from 3,788.63MW to 3,976.24MW around 10am yesterday, but dropped to 1,075.08MW at 3 pm, before crashing to 70.60MW around 4 pm. It was observed that only the Trans-Amadi Gas Turbine Power Plant in Rivers State supplied power to the grid around 4 pm on Saturday, producing just 0.80MW at the time. Power generation on the grid moved up slightly to 72.30MW around 5 pm, as engineers from TCN struggled to restore the grid, according to sources from the transmission company.