Why The National Grid Collapses Every So Often- From An Ex TCN Staffer

Epileptic power supply has forever been a blight on Nigeria, ferociously hobbling the already beleaguered economy and undermining the quality of life of citizens. But this year, the situation has taken a grislier turn. Grid collapses—instances where the entire nation, or a significant proportion, is plunged into darkness on account of infrastructural failure—have become frequent, incessant. An array of new verbiage describing the situation has spawned across the internet. Satirical wisecracks making light of the situation—the knee-jerk Nigerian reaction to strife— swirl across social media. But the situation has heralded an unprecedented quality of hardship to Nigerians, and criticism against the government and power distributors has been sharp. In addition to the soaring cost of petrol, anticipating the availability of power has become an inscrutable game of trivia. As such, Nigerians have sought to understand the causes and particulars of the incessant national grid collapse. To this end, Culture Custodian sat in conversation with Oluwafemi Fasominu, an electrical engineer and former staff of the Transmission Company of Nigeria to distill the causes and solutions to Nigeria’s beleaguered national grid. 

This conversation has been edited for clarity. 

What is your leading thesis regarding the now incessant national grid collapses? 

There are several possible causative factors for the Nigerian grid. The leading cause, however, must be the state of the national grid.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by “the state of the national grid?”

I read an article about an interview with the minister of power. He mentioned a 49-year-old power transformer being damaged. 49! Many of our switching devices in the substations are obsolete, begging for a change, yet the government has yet to invest enough money to help upgrade them.

How does the situation in Nigeria compare with foreign nations with better power infrastructure?  

Many progressive countries have slowly integrated mini-grid technology into their infrastructures, meaning citizens can generate their electricity and give back to the grid. In summary, generation stations don’t have to be burdened so much with generating power to feed the population as the population is generating its power and giving back excesses to those who need them. Nigeria is yet to implement that, it is so bad that the generation stations aren’t even running at full capacity, so the needs and demands of the people cannot be met, in the process of consumers utilizing what is being generated, they place a lot of stress on the obsolete grid technology we utilize thereby overloading the power transformers. 

Aren’t there safeguards to minimize damage in the event of overloading? If simple electronic devices have fuses and other protective mechanisms, surely the grid must have some defense framework. 

Typically, when overloading happens, a relay kicks in to protect the transformers from damage, but how many of these relays are functional in Nigeria?

In your telling, a lot of the blame falls on the government and the power companies. But do you think citizens are in some way also culpable? 

Yes. Nigerians are fond of bypassing meters through illegal connections. What they seem to not understand is they might cause a short circuit fault or backfeeding which would cause damage to the grid. Bear in mind I said earlier that our protective devices are obsolete. Illegal connections create demand more than what is forecasted by distribution stations. This spike in demand disrupts the frequency balance. Frequency in Nigeria alternates between 50.05 and 49.95, anything above or below would cause a grid collapse, which is why load shedding happens to try to balance the frequency. Also, vandalization of the grid, Nigerians do the stupidest things trying to get scrap to sell.

We now have pages on X dedicated to monitoring the situation. Every so often we see a viral tweet proclaiming a collapse in the national grid, bringing it to our consciousness. Do you think the rate of collapse has been more frequent this year or do we only feel that way because of the constant monitoring?

You would be surprised to discover that grid collapses happen a lot more frequently than we know. Total grid collapse, however, is rare. In as much as the grid is an interconnection of power lines, these lines are protected by switching devices. So if a fault happens in one area, it gets isolated from the others. Those types of collapses are partial grid collapses. But like I said, poor maintenance and the protection devices meant to isolate the faults are not functioning the way they’re supposed to.

In conclusion, what does the solution look like?

A full upgrade of the power infrastructure in the country. It will cost a fortune but a full upgrade is the only solution. Paying our bills is also a step in the right direction. Without corruption, if generation stations are making enough revenue to run their plants at full capacity, we would enjoy more electricity. But generating stations will only provide what they’re being paid for.