This latest grid collapse, nearly the 10th this year, is coming amid high cost of diesel, which is already hovering above N800 per litre, as well as increasing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) despite the over N5 trillion subsidy currently being paid by the Federal Government.
Although the power sector was privatised about eight years ago, the transmission segment, which wheels electricity from the generation plants to the distribution segment is still controlled by government.
The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) had called for an immediate industrial action with threat to withdraw service yesterday.
Nigeria may record over N3 billion loses daily over the strike action embarked upon by electricity workers. Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc earlier stated that electricity invoices in the country average N60 billion monthly from the national grid, translating to about N720 billion every year. With existing subsidy being incurred by government, the daily cost of the strike may hover around N3 billion.
While the generation companies (GenCos) had already signed supply agreements with gas producers, who must be paid, power companies like Azura power plant must be paid the amount of energy they claim to be generating whether they are consumed or not.
In a circular with number 012/2020 dated 15-08-2022, National Secretary of the association, Joe Ajaero, said the action became imminent due to the directive of TCN board that all staff in acting capacity going to assistant general manager must appear for promotion interview.
Ajaero said: “This directive is in contravention of our conditions of service and career progression paths, and unilaterally done without the relevant stakeholders.” He added that the reason for the industrial action also included stigmatisation and prevention of staff from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation from working in other areas in the power sector and refusal of the market operator to fund the payment of entitlement of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) ex-staff, as agreed in the December 2019. .
The union had earlier issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Chief Executive Officer of TCN on May 18, threatening to down tools if its complaints were not resolved.
Spokesperson of TCN, Ndidi Mba, said the national grid was shut down by the union around 3:00p.m. yesterday after many 330kV transmission lines and 33kV feeder-lines across the power system network were switched off.
“Regrettably, this is coming weeks after we had emerged from hectic grid management regime, precipitated by paucity of generation, which we grappled with for months. It would be recalled, in tandem with the initiative of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on Partial Activation of Contracts – coupled with the stream of interventions by the Ministry of Power and other stakeholders in the Value Chain – grid generation (at peak) had reached 4,830.69MW as at Tuesday, August 16, 2022,” she said.
Promising that efforts are being made to restore the grid as quickly as possible, Mba hinted that the Ministries of Power and Labour & Employment were meeting with the union to resolve the issues.
Amid the collapse of the grid, NUEE, yesterday, said the nationwide blackout would continue until their grievances were resolved. This was notwithstanding the emergency meeting the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, had with the union.
A source at the meeting vowed that the workers would not resume until the Federal Government meets all their demands.
ELECTRICITY workers, last night, suspended the industrial action, which began yesterday afternoon. Though the workers switched off power supply, a statement by Head, Press and Public Relations of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, said the Minister apprehended the strike.
He said: “Dr Chris Ngige has apprehended the strike embarked upon by NUEE following an emergency meeting between the union, government and other stakeholders, at the instance of the Minister.
“At the end of the meeting, the Secretary General of NUEE, Joe Ajaero, assured the Minister that all necessary steps would be taken to restore the supply of electricity to the country immediately.”
Efforts at reaching the General Secretary of NUEE, Joe Ajaero, were abortive as he did not answer his phone calls, but a source confirmed that the union has suspended the strike by two weeks.
Source: Guardian
