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The Transmission Company of Nigeria has explained that the Organised Labour shut down the National grid over indefinite strike action.
Ndidi Mbah, General Manager, Public Affairs at TCN disclosed this in a statement on Monday.
According to TCN, the striking workers under the umbrella National Union of Electricity Employees deliberately shut down the national grid at about 02:19 am on Monday.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the Labour Union has shut down the national grid, resulting in a blackout nationwide. The national grid shutdown occurred at about 2.19 am this morning, 3rd June 2024.
“At about 1:15 am 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.
“Other transmission substations that were shut down by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labor 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. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 am.
“At about 3.23 am, 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 labor Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make efforts to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centers nationwide”, the statement reads.
The development comes as electricity workers in compliance with organized labour’s indefinite strike vowed to shut down the national grid.
The National Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress commenced indefinite strike on June 3 over the government’s failure to implement a new minimum wage and reversal of April 240 percent electricity tariff hike.
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