Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu reacts to grid collapse, says restoration in progress

Honourable Minister of Power, Mr Bayo Adelabu has pleaded with the masses over the fire outbreak at the Kainji Hydro Power Plant, which led to a drop in the national frequency of power supply.

He maintained that the ministry is on top of the situation and that an emergency team of engineers has been inaugurated to return the power supply to its normal state, adding that over half of the 356.63 MW drop has been successfully restored by the team while the rest will be back as soon as possible.

The fire outbreak started with an explosion on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 at exactly 00:35 hrs, leading to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29 Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06 hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63 MW.

“Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07 hrs to zero,” the power minister stated.

Speaking further, he added, “At 00:41Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41 Hz then resulted in  system collapse of the grid.”

Adelabu reiterated that a speedy restoration process is in progress, appreciating the team of engineers for their prompt response.

“Let’s get the restoration work completed as soon as possible,” Adelabu noted.

He also expressed the notion behind the delay in notifying the masses to avoid unnecessary fear over the situation.

“Delay in update was deliberate, so as not to cause panic and to also be able to update on the progress of remedial actions taken so far.

This is to ensure economic and security saboteurs don’t take advantage of every situation reported,” he concluded.