Newsbreak: NLC shuts down National grid leading to nation-wide blackout,says TCN

By Samuel Ogunsona

Workers have shut down the National Electricity grid leading to Nationwide blackout, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has said.

In a statement on Monday made available to Irohinoodua, the TCN informed the general public that the Nigerian Labour Congress,(NLC) has shut down the national grid, resulting in black out nationwide.

Labour is asking for wage increase in the face of excruciating economic conditions amidst a reckless and stupendous lifestyle of the Nigerian ruling class

The TCN said the national grid shut down occured at about 2.19am on Monday.

“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” the statement signed by said TCN General Manager, Ndidi Mbah stated.

The TCN said other transmission substations that were shut down, by the workers included 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.”

It said the sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am.

The TCN said “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.”

The company said it will continue to make efforts to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide.