JUST IN: Electricity workers shut down Abuja TCN station… electricity grid crashes (VIDEO)

Electricity workers have shut down the Abuja TCN station as they embark on a strike.

In the same vein, the national electricity grid on Wednesday morning began a nosedive from over 4,000 megawatts (MW) to 762MW as workers under the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) began an industrial action to protest a compulsory promotion interview for principal managers, among other issues.

According to data from the Independent System Operation (ISO), a section of TCN, power generation on the grid was 4,149.40MW as of 6 am from 21 power plants on Wednesday but drastically dropped to 1,635MW from 17 plants.

By 12 noon, the grid had crashed to 1,246.40MW as three power plants went off, and by 1 pm, the grid dropped to 762.30MW with just 13 plants active. The peak generation achieved on Tuesday was 4,829MW.

The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) protested on Tuesday, blocking the premises of TCN in Maitama after it issued a notice of the strike earlier, notifying that it would fully commence the industrial action on Wednesday.

According to the General Secretary, Joe Ajaero in the notice dated 15th August 2022, the union protested against a directive by “the TCN Board that all Principal Managers in acting capacity going to Assistant General Managers, must appear for a promotion interview. This directive is in contravention of our Conditions of Service and Career Progression Paths, and unilaterally done without the relevant stakeholders.”

It also alleged prevention of staff from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation from working in other areas in the power sector, as well as refusal of the Market operator at TCN to fund the payment of entitlement of ex-PHCN staff as agreed in December 2019.

Responding to the notice the same day, the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, noted the complaints and appealed to the union for time to resolve the issues.

However, NUEE on 16th August 2022, wrote back to the minister and the MD of TCN, insisting that the protest will continue. The union faulted the authorities for not resolving the promotion issues for three years and was not convinced about the issues regarding stigmatization at the Office of the Head of Service.

Watch video below: