By Nigerians Experience Nationwide Blackout As Power Generation Drops
Nigerians on late Tuesday night experienced a nationwide blackout, first of its kind in recent time. The country witnessed a total power outage at about 8pm on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018.
According to the statement released by the Federal Ministry of Power Works and Housing, this was caused by a fire incident at the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) located near Okada, Edo State. The incident led to the loss of 3,182 megawatts of electricity across all the six Generating Companies (GenCons).
The statement added that the affected GenCos include, 1,320MW Egbin GenCo and 60MW Paras GenCo in Lagos State; 676MW Olorunsogo NIPP GenCo and 338MW Olorunsogo GenCo in Ogun State. The others are 450MW Omotosho NIPP GenCo and 338MW Omotosho GenCo in Ondo State.
It was disclosed that prior to the fire incident, power generation had been increasing since September, but the fire incident that disrupted the gas supply to various stations caused the national grid to go off without notice.
A part of the statement read, “The sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from these stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 8:00pm January 2, 2018.”
The Ministry however added that while repair works continue on the damaged pipeline, necessary steps are being taken to manage production and minimise the impact of the loss
