The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, emphasized the need for regional power grids to address frequent grid collapses in Nigeria.
Speaking on Wednesday at the unveiling of Hexing Livoltek, an electricity meter manufacturing company in Lekki, Lagos State, he noted that grid failures are nearly unavoidable due to the country’s poor power infrastructure, according to The Punch.
Adelabu advocated for multiple power grids across regions and states to enhance stability in the electricity supply.
He argued that establishing multiple power grids in each region and state would help ensure stability in the electricity supply.
He pointed out that decentralizing the power sector would support the initiative to establish grids in each region, a plan made feasible by the Electricity Act signed by President Bola Tinubu in 2023.
“This Electricity Act has decentralised power. It has enabled all the subnational governments, the state government and the local government, 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 shouldn’t be like that. This 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. So, if there’s a problem with a particular grid, only the state where it belongs will be affected, not the entire nation. So, this is one of the impacts this Electricity Act will have,” he stressed.
Addressing the issue of grid collapse, he emphasized that the situation would be unavoidable without significant investment in the power sector.
“We keep talking about grid collapse. Grid collapse, grid collapse, whether it’s a total collapse, partial collapse, or slight trip-off. This is almost inevitable as it is today, given the state of our power infrastructure, the infrastructure is in deplorable conditions, so why won’t you have trip-offs? Why won’t you have collapses, either total or partial? It will continue to remain like this until we can overhaul the entire infrastructure. What we do now is to make sure that we manage it,” he declared.
Adelabu stated that there had been no grid collapse in the last four months until the incident occurred again on Monday.
“In the last four months, we have not heard of any grid collapse, except two days ago when we had a partial collapse that didn’t even last two hours. So, what we work on now is how to improve our response time, to bring it up each time it collapses. There are transformers of 60 years old, and 50 years old, and you’re expecting them to perform at the optimal rate. It is not possible. That is why we need a lot of investments in this infrastructure to bring them up to speed, to bring them up to the state that can give us a grid that will not collapse again,” he noted.
While unveiling the company, Adelabu praised the firm for investing heavily in Nigeria at a time when others were divesting.
He described the event as a significant milestone in the sector’s journey toward a more efficient and equitable electricity system.
The minister noted that the launch of the meter factory marked a key achievement in efforts to prioritize local content, create jobs, and reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imports.
The Chief Executive Officer of Hexing Group, Robert Liang, expressed optimism about Hexing’s expansion into Nigeria, calling it a pivotal moment for the company and a commitment to advancing clean energy in the country.
“This is a proud moment for the Hexing Group as we open our branch in Nigeria. It’s more than just an office; it’s a step towards a future where clean energy drives the growth of this great nation.”
