A breakdown in its 330kV Ugwaji–Apir transmission lines has caused a major power outage that is impacting sections of North-Central, North-East, and North-West, according to the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

This most recent development comes after the national grid collapsed many times. At least eight instances of national grid breakdown have been reported in the nation in 2024 alone.

The Ugwuaji–Makurdi Line 2 tripped owing to a fault at around 4:53 am on Monday, according to the power company. By 4:58 am, there was a forced power outage that affected the Northeast, North-West, and portions of the North-Central areas, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW.

Ndidi Mbah, the company’s general manager of public affairs, issued a statement on Tuesday stating that the reason is still unknown despite the efforts of two teams sent for fault tracing, which included difficult terrain crossing.

The 132kV line’s supply has been restored, according to the TCN, while the 330kV lines remained down, affecting the distribution of electricity throughout northern Nigeria. TCN expressed regret for the inconvenience and stated that it was working hard to find a solution.

The 243 MW on the Ugwuaji–Markurdi 330kV Line 2 was moved to Line 1 on the same route when it tripped at around 4:53 am. Line 1 also tripped at 4:58 am, causing a 468 MW loss overall. When Lines 1 and 2 were attempted at around 5:15 and 5:17 in the morning, they all tripped instantly on the same relay indication.

Two linesman teams were sent out in response to yesterday’s tripping events. To speed up fault tracing along the 215 km line, which contains 245 transmission towers, one will come from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and the other from the Enugu transmission.

The Apir crew patrolled the line all day yesterday, negotiating difficult terrain to find the fault, all the way to the Benue River. They proceeded with the fault tracing early this morning after failing to identify the reason for the tripping.

According to the TCN, the unlawful “sit-at-home” instruction in the South-East for October 21 and 22, 2024, prevented the lines patrol team from the Enugu Region of TCN from starting lines patrol on Monday.

In addition to impeding the patrol squad, this made it challenging to refuel police cars for the long-distance line tracing. However, plans were established for the team to be led by security personnel, and they have started fault tracing this morning.

The 132kV transmission line from New Haven to Apir is now back up thanks to TCN, but the 330kV lines are still down, which affects the country’s northern power supply.

Unfortunately, there is a power outage in the North as a result of the TCN Shiroro-Mando transmission line being down for security reasons as well.

In order for our experts to make repairs and restore the bulk power supply through both lines, TCN is doing all in their power to identify the reason of the interruption.

“We acknowledge that our patrol teams would have continued their search into the night yesterday if it weren’t for the difficult terrain, which includes swamps and rivers as well as insecure areas in the forest,” the statement reads. We also sincerely apologise to the government and electricity consumers in all the affected states.

In order to identify and resolve the reason behind the line tripping, we met with security personnel again very early this morning and have carried on with the fault tracing’, the TCN representative concluded.