Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has raised the alarm over the ongoing nationwide blackout due to the deliberate shut down of the national grid, by members of the organized labour as part of the ongoing nationwide strike.
The organized labour in Nigeria made up of the Trade Union Congress, TUC and the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, had declared a nationwide indefinite strike on the midnight of Sunday, in protest over the federal government’s failure to meet their demands concerning a new minimum wage.
TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, announced that the organized labour has shut down generation plants and many transmission substations including Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations.
Mbah in a statement issued on Monday morning noted that many power generation plants have also been shut down by the organized labour, including Jebba generating station.
According to TCN, the organized labour was also resisting every attempt aimed at recovering the collapsed national grid.
“TCN hereby informs the general public that the Labour Union has shut down the national grid, resulting in black out nationwide. The national grid shut down occured at about 2.19am this morning, 3rd June 2024.
“At about 1:15am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero.
“Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.
“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency.
“The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am.
“At about 3.23am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. The situation is such that the labour union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” TCN lamented.
