The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, recently highlighted the inevitability of Nigeria's national power grid collapses due to the poor state of the country’s power infrastructure. Speaking at the unveiling of an electricity meter manufacturing company, Hexing Livoltek, in Lagos, Adelabu emphasized the need for a decentralized power grid to address the recurring collapses.
He explained that Nigeria’s reliance on a single national grid makes the entire country vulnerable when the system malfunctions. By decentralizing the grid into regional and state-specific grids, localized issues would no longer affect power supply nationwide. This decentralization is a key component of the Electricity Act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in 2023, allowing state and local governments to participate in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.
Today, if there’s a disturbance of the national grid, it affects all 36 states. It shouldn’t be like that, Adelabu said, advocating for regional grids that are removed and shielded from each other. He noted that while grid collapses are nearly unavoidable given the current state of the infrastructure, the government is focusing on improving response times to restore power quickly.
Adelabu also pointed to the age of critical infrastructure, including transformers as old as 60 years, which contribute to the ongoing grid issues. Without significant investment to overhaul these systems, he warned that grid collapses whether total or partial will continue.
Despite these challenges, the minister noted a recent improvement in the grid's stability, with no collapses reported for the last four months until a recent partial collapse that lasted less than two hours. Still, the aging infrastructure means that full modernization is the only long term solution to stop the collapses entirely.
In response to a recent collapse that affected several states, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) reported that it had restored 90% of bulk power supply across its substations within 24 hours. This rapid response highlights the ongoing efforts to manage grid stability even in the face of infrastructural deficiencies.
The path to stable power in Nigeria remains long, but with the decentralization brought by the Electricity Act and the government’s focus on improving infrastructure, there is hope for progress. However, substantial investments in grid modernization are needed to prevent future collapses and ensure reliable electricity for all Nigerians.