The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in hss said that that Nigeria’s power transmission grid collapsed on Tuesday night.
It added that the unfortunate development had that led to massive blackout across the country.
It was gathered that the collapse was caused by a fire incident on the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System of the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company Limited.
The incident, the ministry said, in a statement issued about 12:44 a.m., on Wednesday, had greatly affected the pipeline that supplies gas to six thermal power plants, causing the collapse of the country’s electricity grid at 10:20p.m. on Tuesday.
According to the ministry, it regretted that after a sustained period of increasing production and distribution of power, since September 2017 to date, the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company Limited reported a fire incident on its Escravos Lagos Pipeline System near Okada, Edo State on Tuesday, January 2, 2018.
It added that, “The incident requires a shutdown of the pipeline supplying gas to Egbin 1, 320megawatts; Olorunsogo NIPP 676MW; Olorunsogo 338MW; Omotosho NIPP 450MW; Omotosho 338 MW; and Paras 60MW power stations.
“The sudden loss of generation, due to an interruption in gas supply from these stations, caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 20:20 on 2nd January 2018. The national transmission grid is owned and operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria,” it added.
