Transmission Company of Nigeria Addresses Ikeja Electric Outage Claims

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) announced on Friday that the recent power outages reported by Ikeja Electric (IE) on November 3 and 4 were not due to grid instability. Ms. Ndidi Mba, TCN’s General Manager for Corporate Communication, shared this information in a statement from Lagos.

According to Mba, attributing the outages to grid issues is incorrect. She explained that determining the reasons for disturbances in the national grid falls to the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), not to distribution companies like IE. NISO has indicated that the decline in power generation is mainly due to problems with gas supply for thermal power plants and lower water levels affecting hydroelectric generation.

Mba noted that these issues have led to reduced electricity supply, causing longer periods of power outages and load shedding, which varies for each distribution company based on available generation. She emphasized that TCN can only transmit the energy that is generated and cannot supply electricity that is not available.

She provided details about the interruptions, stating that a significant portion was due to low generation levels. Specifically, 68% of the outages on November 1 and 2 were related to frequency-control load shedding, while 26% were linked to IE’s failure to comply with load allocation rules or faults in its own network.

Mba urged IE and other distribution companies to avoid spreading misinformation about the causes of electricity supply issues. She encouraged customers to seek accurate information from NISO’s official channels regarding the state of the electricity supply in Nigeria.

TCN expressed sympathy for customers facing reduced electricity supply and reaffirmed its commitment to transmitting all available energy safely and efficiently while working with relevant stakeholders to improve the situation.