TCN disputes Ikeja Electric outage claims
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has disputed claims made by Ikeja Electric Distribution Company regarding recent power outages in parts of Lagos. TCN states that Ikeja Electric is misleading customers by attributing the outages to issues with the power grid.
In a statement, TCN clarified that Ikeja Electric’s announcement on November 5 falsely attributed the cause of power outages on November 3 and 4 to the transmission company. The actual reason for the reduced electricity supply is lower power generation, resulting in load shedding.
This dispute follows Ikeja Electric’s apology to its customers for not meeting the minimum requirement of 20 hours of power supply on November 3 and 4. Ikeja Electric had noted that the reduced electricity supply was due to lower allocations from the national grid.
TCN claims that most feeder interruptions were caused by low generation, citing records of outages on November 1 and 2. About 68% of these outages were due to load shedding triggered by low electricity generation.
Approximately 26% of the outages were caused by Ikeja Electric’s failure to follow load allocations set by the National Control Centre or issues with their distribution network, such as faults and maintenance. The remaining 6% were due to TCN’s planned maintenance or switching operations.
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TCN reported on 46 outages related to the 33kV feeders mentioned by Ikeja Electric. Out of these, 29 were due to load shedding linked to low generation, while 14 were the responsibility of Ikeja Electric. This included nine cases where they didn’t comply with load allocations and five instances of faults or trips in their network.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) pointed out that issues with gas supplies and lower water levels at hydroelectric plants are the main reasons for the drop in electricity generation. Limited gas supplies mean some thermal power stations cannot run at full capacity, and less water in reservoirs is impacting hydropower generation.
According to the Electricity Act 2023, NISO is responsible for managing electricity generation and transmission. The company emphasized that distribution companies should rely on accurate information from NISO when discussing power supply issues.
For customers, the disagreement between TCN and distribution companies leaves them confused, as they hear different reasons for outages while ongoing generation problems continue to impact electricity supply. Some customers are still receiving less than the 20 hours of electricity they were promised.
