The ministry of Power has identified vandalism on a transmission tower as the immediate cause of the national blackout.
The ministry in a statement Saturday evening said the attack on the Odukpani Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line resulted in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation.
It added that the incident thereafter led to a cascade of plant shut down across the country.
The ministry however assured Nigerians that the power on the grid is being restored sequentially by the System Operator as other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by the Niger Power Holding Company Ltd.
Read full statement below:
Further to our earlier press release, we wish to apprise the general public that the immediate cause of national blackout (system collapse) was an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit transmission line thus resulting in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation. This consequently led to a cascade of plant shut down across the country.
We wish to notify the public that power on the grid is being restored sequentially by the System Operator as other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by the Niger Power Holding Company Ltd.
