After four hours of total blackout across the country, the leadership of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), has suspended the ongoing strike by two weeks.
Blueprint gathered that a conciliation meeting between the Federal government and the striking electricity workers was held in Abuja.
At the end of the three-hour-long meeting, a source said the workers agreed to suspend the industrial action which has thrown the country into a total blackout.
The workers expressed the optimism government will listen to the voice of reasoning and priotise their welfare and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, most of the cities experienced a total blackout on Wednesday owing to the industrial action embarked upon by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN’s) electricity unions.
Blueprint learnt that the blackout occurred at 3:01pm, and some cities and villages in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were affected.
As at the time of filing this report at 7:39pm, the nation’s capital was still in darkness.
However, the management of TCN said the efforts were on to resolve the issues which resulted into the industrial action.
In a statement issued by the General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, Ms. Ndidi Mbah, said: “Following the Industrial Dispute declared by the two in-house Unions at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the national electric power grid has been shut down by Union functionaries—even as unfettered effort was being made to resolve the issues upon which the action was called.
“The incident occurred at 15:01Hrs, today, after several 330kV transmission lines and 33kV feeder-lines across the power system network had been switched off by the Union members, resulting in generation-load imbalance and multiple voltage escalations at critical stations and substations. Regrettably, this is coming weeks after we had emerged from a hectic grid management regime, precipitated by paucity of generation, which we grappled with for a couple of 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 yesterday, the 16th of August 2022.
“In spite of this setback, we are set to restore the grid as quickly as possible. The Ministries of Power and Labour & Employment are currently meeting with the Union Officials to resolve the issues.
“The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry appreciates the understanding of our customers—within and outside the country. Enduring mechanisms are being instituted to avert a situation of this kind, going forward”.
