The Organised Labour unions have shut down the National Grid as they begin their indefinite strike.
Recall that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had embarked on a nationwide strike at midnight on Sunday, 2nd June 2024.
The workers are demanding an increased minimum which the Federal Government offered N48,000, then N57,000 and now N60,000 but the NLC and TUC insisted on N494,000 after initially requesting N600,000.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, 3rd June 2024, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), said the nationwide power outage is a result of Labour shutting down the National Grid.
The statement signed by Ndidi Mbah GM, of Public Affairs, TCN, said the grid was shut down at 2:19 am.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the Labour Union has shut down the national grid, resulting in a blackout nationwide. The national grid shutdown occurred at about 2:19 am this morning, 3rd June 2024.
“At about 1:15 am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Centre was brought to zero.
“Other transmission substations that were shut down by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.
“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 am.
“At about 3:23 am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. The situation is such that the Labour Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilise the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” the statement read.