The TCN reported in a statement dated Monday that the demonstrators had battered and driven the Benin Transmission employees out of the control room.

The statement was signed by Ndidi Mbah, the company’s general manager.

The statement said: “This morning at 1:15 a.m., the Benin Transmission Operator, part of TCN’s Independent System Operations unit, reported that all operators had been driven out of the control room, and that any staff members who had resisted had been physically assaulted and some injured in the process of ejecting them.

As a result, the Benin Area Control Centre had been reduced to zero with no supervision or control whatsoever.

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Additional transmission substations that were closed by the labour union are the ones at Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba, and Osogbo.

“The workers union’s continuous efforts resulted in the opening of several transmission lines on an equitable basis.

“On the power generating side, power generating units from various generating stations were compelled to shut down portions of their plants. Three units in the same substation shut down on a very high frequency after the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its units.

“The national grid was shut down at 2:19 am due to high frequency and system instability caused by the abrupt forced load cuts.”

On the other hand, the TCN reported that grid recovery started at roughly 3:23 am, utilising the Shiroro substation to try and feed the transmission lines that supply the Katampe transmission substation with bulk electricity.

According to the company, “the labour union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.”

The transmission operator promised to keep working to rebuild and stabilise the grid so that regular bulk electricity transmission to distribution load centres around the country can resume.