The Nigerian Power Consumers Forum (NPCF) has blamed the recent grid collapses in the country on sabotage by hoodlums.

NPCF convener Michael Okoh said this in a statement on Thursday.

Mr Okoh said the grid collapse was not due to the lack of capacity on the part of the company, adding that it was a case of sabotage by hoodlums, who may not mean well for the country.

“The fire incident at the Birnin Kebbi transmission substation switchyard is more of a sabotage on the national grid systems,” Mr Okoh noted.

According to him, power engineers with over three decades of experience believe that technically, there is no way two power transformers separated by a reasonable distance from each other will be engulfed by fire simultaneously.

Mr Okoh said transformers have inbuilt system protection, and the probability of a transformer ignition is quite low.

“However, saboteurs could devise any means to disrupt the flow of electricity by pulling out transformer components,” said the NPCF convener.

According to him, immediate enquiries into the incident, both the 90 megavolt amperes (MVA) transformer on the 330KV line and the 60MVA transformer on the 132kV line experienced a fire incident simultaneously despite being apart, separated by a reasonable space.

“The issue of voltage or surge was ruled out as TCN has robust protection and isolation mechanisms. Instead, only internal issues within the transformer can lead to such incidents. This is not the first time critical national infrastructures have been sabotaged, as cases abound every day of oil theft rupturing pipelines,” Mr Okoh explained.

The NPCF convener added, “Hacking of power transmission towers of which over 20 of such cases were reported by TCN in the last 12 months.”

Mr Okoh said just after the pronouncement on the efforts of TCN on grid stability, the power sector has recorded at least two system collapses in succession.

The forum leader said the grid collapse was caused by a fire incident in the Birnin Kebbi transmission substation and line snap along the 330kV Jebba-Kainji transmission line.

He said that these incidents have caused nationwide outages, which the NPCF believes is to bring the management of TCN into disrepute.

“While the investigation is ongoing, all indications refer to sabotage on both transformers as they are not linked and operate on two voltage levels and transmission lines,” he said.

(NAN)