What is in a name? The rose by any name will smell as sweet, says Shakespeare. During former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, the term banditry was borrowed to address all cases of terrorism, kidnapping, unknown gunmen, ritual killing, etcetera. It appeared that the name doused the odium faced by government in dealing with the activities of criminals mostly alleged to be Fulani herders. Perhaps learning from that trend, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) appears to have borrowed another byword for national grid collapse – line trippings.
On January 11, 2025, the national grid looked to have suffered another major collapse, resulting in widespread blackouts that affected households and industries. The TCN, however, attributed the recent outages to “trippings,” citing technical issues such as “frequency surges”.
This incident marks the 13th collapse in the past 13 months. Reports indicate that power generation plummeted from over 2,100 megawatts to approximately 390 megawatts shortly after the collapse of the Benin-Omotosho line. With the collapse, TCN, through its General Manager for Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, continued emphasising “trippings” rather than a “national grid collapse.” TCN clarified that these power disruptions were due to specific transmission line failures and maintained that the grid remained operational despite outages affecting certain areas, such as Lagos. Yet, it is not clear why TCN is emphasising “trippings” instead of acknowledging a “national grid collapse,” especially since there has been no explicit directive from the government to avoid using the term “grid collapse.”
Understanding “Trippings” vs. “Grid Collapse”
The Transmission Company of Nigeria defines “trippings” as automatic shutdowns of transmission lines designed to prevent further issues when faults occur. This differs from a “grid collapse,” which implies a total failure of the entire electrical system. Although TCN has not specified the exact number of previous trippings, it has indicated that such events occur regularly, leading to localized outages without resulting in total system failures. In response to multiple trippings, TCN has recently communicated its commitment to improving the reliability of the national grid through infrastructure upgrades, preventive maintenance, and enhanced public communication.
