by Stanley Azuakola

The year is only halfway gone, but the nation has already experienced system collapse in the power sector a total of 14 times.

Records from the daily operational report of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), showed that there were two recorded cases of total system collapse in March; one in April; five in May; and one already in June. When there’s a total system collapse, electricity generation from the grid is completely lost.

There were also two recorded cases of partial collapse in March and three in April. In this case, even though there was a collapse of one or two units in the system, the grid was not completely lost.

A source at the Ministry of Power, who spoke to the PUNCH newspaper, blamed sabotage for the two major system collapse experienced at the Benin Transmission Station on March 15 and March 23, 2012. He said that three days after the saboteurs had tampered with the system, a fire outbreak occurred which led to a system collapse.

Apart from sabotage, other situations that could cause system collapse, include cases of tall tress touching transmission lines or faults in the power plants.

As at Tuesday, the nation was generating 3, 060.9 megawatts of electricity.