The recurrent collapse of the country’s national grid is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed urgently for Nigerians to enjoy a stable and reliable power supply,
A stable power supply is crucial for social economic development to thrive.In 2024 alone, the national electricity grid collapsed more than eight times, throwing the nation into frequent darkness.
Millions of homes and businesses continue to suffer regular power outages due to the frequent grid collapse, resulting in huge losses.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of the country’s economy, suffer even more because many of them do not have the capital to invest in alternative power sources, leaving them at the mercy of the erratic national grid.
Experts and stakeholders in the power sector attribute the repeated grid collapse to factors like ageing facilities, lack of maintenance and requisite investment, as well as alleged sabotage by vandals.
They listed other factors to include obsolete equipment, inadequate gas supply, improper coordination of plants and gas pipelines, lack of operating/spinning reserve and voltage support scheme.
They called for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, (SCADA) system to help sustain stability in power supply. The SCADA system is used for controlling, monitoring, and analysing industrial devices.
The experts have warned that the incessant national grid collapse may persist if urgent steps were not taken to address the several challenges bedeviling the power sector.
The Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, said that there was a need to have power grids in different regions or states.
According to Adelabu, having multiple power grids in each region and state would ensure stability.
He said that the decentralisation of the power sector would help the plan to build grids in each region.
“This has been made possible by the Electricity Act (EA) signed by President Bola Tinubu in 2023, which has decentralised power.
“It has enabled all the state governments and the local government councils to be able to participate in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity.
“We all rely on a single national grid today; if there is a disturbance of the national grid, it affects all 36 states. It should not be like that.
“The EA will enable us to start moving gradually towards having regional groups and possibly having state grids, and each of these grids will be removed and shielded from each other,” he said.
Adelabu said that the Federal Government was overhauling the national grid to reduce the frequent disturbances and improve power supply across the country.
According to him, the grid is over 50 years old, with weak, obsolete components, which includes the lines, sub-stations with old transformers.
He said that most of the tower installed a long time ago were falling due to effect of weather and climate changes.
“This grid requires a huge revenue for maintenance.
“But what we have now, we will continue to manage it and prevent frequent disturbances until we are able to completely overhaul this infrastructure,‘’ he said.
Adelabu said that the Federal Government was not quiet about revamping the entire grid structure as various programmes were being put in place to ensure that old infrastructure were replaced.
He listed the programmes to include Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) known as the Siemens project which is currently ongoing.
“There is also the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s expansion programme supported by the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) .
”So, what we have now, we will continue to manage and prevent frequent disturbances until we are able to overhaul these infrastructure a 100 per cent,‘’ he said.
Some experts said that the only way to reduce the incessant grid collapse was for the Federal Government and stakeholders to invest more in the sector.
Mr Isreal Abraham, the President, Chartered Institute of Power Engineers (CIPEN), said that power infrastructure needed a lot of maintenance, adding that it was very costly to take care of equipment.
Abraham said that the grid collapsed often because there was no constant maintenance both from the generation, distribution and transmission companies.
“The transmission company is doing its best, but more needs to be done and this should be done massively.
“A lot of things need to be put in place, and lot of funds are required to upgrade power facilities to the level where we can be sure that things are in the right place.
“For instance, the last collapse was as a result of shattered equipment that helps to manage the grid.
“If that equipment was maintained or replaced, it would not have gotten burnt easily, and the possibility of it breaking down would have been averted,” he said.
Abraham also said that discipline was essential in managing the grid by ensuring that the right things are done.
According to him, the regulator, especially the system operators, are expected to direct the grid managers to do the right thing.
He said that anyone that failed to comply with such directives should be sanctioned.
“This goes for both the generation, transmission and distribution companies.
“All of them are supposed to comply with the instruction of the grid operator. So grid discipline is one of the major things that has to be done,”he said.
Mr Denis Ukwuez, the Executive Director, CIPEN, said that the major cause of non-performance in the power sector was lack of adequate financing.
Ukwuez said that there were projects in the power sector that had been there for more than 20 years and had not been completed.
”We have projects in transmission which have been there for more than 20 years and not completed.
”Some of these power plants are taking over 30 years to be completed because of funding,” he said.
A power expert, Prof. Stephen Ogaji, emphasised the need for the system operator to complete and inaugurate the SCADA project to effectively supervise the national grid.
Ogaji also urged the system operator to implement the Generation Dispatch Tool (GDT) and enforce all provisions of the grid code.
He called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) to approve the procurement of Ancillary Services that provide secondary controls (Spinning Reserve).
He warned that the incessant disruption of normal grid operation could lead to reduced plant availability, high generation costs, and significant revenue losses.
He said that the country had already recorded great losses in revenue due to the inability to generate power into the grid.
The expert also highlighted the impact of thermal fatigue on key components of power generation equipment, resulting in millions of dollars in damages.
He said that the entire economic system, not just utilities, was affected by the unstable power supply.
As Nigerians continue to endure epileptic power supply, stakeholders are unanimous that more investments should be channelled towards grid maintenance for the country to enjoy stable and reliable power supply.
By Constance Athekame, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
