Electricity: The National Grid Recovers To 3,700MW

After the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) employees’ strike was put on hold at 4 o’clock yesterday, the nation’s electrical grid slowly started to recover, reaching 3,772.60 Megawatts.

22 power generation companies were on the grid, according to checks by Vanguard on data provided by the National System Operator, a division of TCN. The top generators were Shiroro Hydro (584MW), Azura-Edo IPP (408MW), and Jebba Hydro (403MW).

On the distribution side, the electricity distribution company’s load allocation was 2,485MW cumulatively with Abuja and Ikeja DisCos having the highest allocation of 280MW each.

Following disagreements with the Federal Government, the disgruntled TCN employees, acting through the National Union Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), shut down the national grid on Wednesday.

They brought about a nationwide blackout that lasted for over 24 hours.

But following a conference for reconciliation organized by the federal government, the two unions decided to call off the strike for two weeks so that the government could address the problems.

NUEE General Secretary, Joe Ajaero in a statement after the meeting said the parties deliberated on most of the issues in contention and ended with the following resolutions:

“On the Issue of Unbundling of TCN’, it was put to rest as the government denied ever contemplating such an agenda.

“On the Issue of Stigmatization of Ex-PHCN workers, who have been denied employment opportunities in TCN; A high power committee was inaugurated comprising of the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Power, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, BPE, Market Operator, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and the Two in-house Unions as members; too fine-tune policy as was considered discriminatory and unacceptable and revert immediately.

“Payment of outstanding arrears of privatization; The Ministry of Power was mandated to activate a sincere process with BPE to pay the outstanding liabilities (16th-month arrears) and a comprehensive report is expected in two weeks”.