The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says it has restored bulk power availability to 90 percent of its substations, in an effort to recover the electricity grid which suffered a system failure on Tuesday.

Ndidi Mbah TCN’s spokesperson, announced the development in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier today, the national electricity grid collapsed for the seventh time, leading to a nationwide blackout.

The incident occurred within 24 hours after the grid collapsed on October 14.

Giving a situation update on Tuesday, Mbah said efforts to fully recover the grid are still ongoing.

“Although the recovery of the grid commenced immediately, with Azura power station providing the blackstart, grid recovery reached advanced stages at about 10.24 am, today when it encountered a challenge that caused a slight setback in the recovery process,” she said.

“The slight setback notwithstanding, TCN continued with the grid recovery process, which has reached an advanced stage, ensuring bulk power availability to about 90 per cent of its substations nationwide.” 

Mbah said supply has been restored to the Abuja axis and other major distribution load centres nationwide.

“The partial disturbance did not affect the Ibom Gas generating station which was islanded from the grid yesterday and continued to supply areas in the South Southern part of the country such as Eket, Ekim, Uyo, and Itu 132kV transmission Substations during the period,” the TCN spokesperson said.

Mbah said an investigation into the cause of the incident would be carried out as soon as the grid is fully restored.