Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, believes frequent system failures on the national grid are unavoidable owing to antiquated infrastructure.
Adelabu, speaking at the launch of Hexing Livoltek, a new electricity meter manufacturing company in Lagos on Wednesday, emphasised the significance of increasing investment in power infrastructure to avoid future breakdowns.
The minister stated that the frequent grid failures that have plagued Nigeria’s electricity supply are mainly unavoidable given the deteriorating quality of the country’s electrical infrastructure.
Adelabu said:
“We keep talking about 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 added that there have been improvements in grid management, and that the grid had not collapsed for four months in a row until a partial failure on Monday, which was resolved in less than two hours.
“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. What we work on now is how to improve our response time to bring it up each time it collapses,” he said.
“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.”
The minister stressed the importance of decentralising the power sector, advocating for multiple grids within regions and states to ensure that power failures in one area do not affect the entire nation.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
During the ceremony, the minister praised Hexing Livoltek for its determination to invest in Nigeria despite a difficult economic climate.
Adelabu described the event as a key milestone in the sector’s journey towards a more efficient and equitable electrical sector.
He stated that the opening of the company’s metre production unit is an important step towards local content development, employment creation, and reducing the country’s reliance on imports.
Robert Liang, CEO of Hexing Group, expressed confidence about the company’s expansion into Nigeria, calling it as a watershed moment for renewable 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,” Liang said.
The CEO also stated that the launch is a step towards a future in which sustainable energy would drive the nation’s growth.