The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has blamed Saturday’s collapse of the national grid on the explosion of a transformer at the Jebba Transmission station.
Several parts of the country were thrown into a blackout in the early hours of the day, the third time in a week.
NERC said it is concerned by the “escalating incidence of grid disturbances” which is “reversing many of the gains recently achieved in reducing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability”.
“Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815hrs and an associated cascade of power plants shut down arising from the loss of load,” the NERC said in a statement.
“However, efforts to restore supply have advanced with power significantly restored, as at 1300hrs, in 33 states and the FCT.”
NERC said it is working to ensure a more “discipline in grid management and optimised investment in infrastructure”.