The national grid embarrassment
On Saturday, October 19, 2024, the national power grid suffered a major setback, leaving many Nigerians without power. This marked the eighth grid failure in 2024, with three occurring within one week. On Tuesday, the grid failed twice within 24 hours. It was such that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) decried “the recent escalating […]
On Saturday, October 19, 2024, the national power grid suffered a major setback, leaving many Nigerians without power. This marked the eighth grid failure in 2024, with three occurring within one week. On Tuesday, the grid failed twice within 24 hours.
It was such that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) decried “the recent escalating incidence of grid disturbances often leading to marked outage in several states thus reversing many of the gains recently achieved in reducing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.”
Indeed, the incessant national grid collapse has become a global embarrassment, more so because it is not a recent phenomenon. From 2015 to May 2024, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said the nation recorded 105 cases of grid collapse.
TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said: “Clearly, between 2020 to date (five years), we recorded 14 total and six partial grid disturbances totalling 20, which represents a 76.47 per cent reduction in grid disturbance, when compared to the previous five years, (2015 to 2019) where we had 64 total and 21 partial grid disturbances, totalling 85 times.”
Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, blamed outdated infrastructure for the incessant collapse of the national grid. Yet, it is regrettable that the minister has become an expert at expending unending excuses for the ills in the power sector. First, he said low tariffs would cure the ills in the power sector and went on to implement the most shocking “full cost-reflective tariff regime” of zero subsidies for electricity, just like fuel.
Adelabu then said it was about Bands and had his way. Now, the minister blamed outdated infrastructure. Meanwhile, if the power reforms had been duly implemented, those who bought the successor Electricity Generation Companies (GenCos) and the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) that were unbundled in 2013 from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) should have upgraded their infrastructure.
It is unfortunate that grid failures are becoming the new normal for Nigerians. And this is happening in a country with the abundance of some of the world’s largest deposits of coal, oil and gas, and great potential for renewable energy.
This has left Nigerians and businesses reliant on petrol and diesel-powered generators, drawing back the country’s economic growth.
In its 2021 Report, the World Bank said that with 85 million Nigerians are lacking access to grid electricity. “This represents 43 per cent of the country’s population and makes Nigeria the country with the largest energy access deficit in the world. The lack of reliable power is a significant constraint for citizens and businesses, resulting on annual economic losses estimated at $26.2 billion (₦10.1 trillion) which is equivalent to about 2 per cent of GDP”, it said.
According to the World Bank Doing Business 2020 Report, Nigeria ranks 171 out of 190 countries in access to electricity. This unenviable position has not changed.
Meanwhile, what the constant grid collapse has shown is the absence of diligent implementation of policies that would provide adequate and reliable energy for the people.
So, we at Daily Trust insist that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should give the sector the urgent attention it deserves and goad it towards implementing policies, regulations that would provide adequate and reliable energy for the people. The challenge of power outages should be seen for what it is-a threat to households and businesses and hindrance to the health and good standard of living of Nigerians.
Also, we urge state and private firms to take advantage of the Electricity Act 2023, which grants them the authority to generate, transmit and distribute electricity within their territories. With this, they can generate and transmit their own electricity locally and transmit the excess to the national grid. This will be a replication of the success story of the Geometric Power Group, the owner of Aba Power, which generates and distributes electricity in its ringfenced area without going through the national transmission network.
The frustrations of Nigerians to the constant grid collapse should prick the conscience of power operators to put the welfare of the people first. They have not shown that they care enough. And they should.
The era of expressing apologies or regrets is over. This is because Nigeria needs uninterrupted power supply, and urgently too, if the economy is to move out of the doldrums. Government should also accelerate the deployment of renewable and non-renewable sources of energy like solar photovoltaic and wind turbines.
It is unacceptable that Nigeria, with an installed capacity of just about 12,500 megawatts can only generate a paltry 3,000 megawatts, which it still cannot effectively transmit and distribute.
We also remind the federal government that Nigerians are tired of empty promises and are running out of the same patience when officials keep asking them to imbibe. The citizens cannot understand why the perennial causes of power outages – shortage of gas, weak transmission and distribution network, inadequate infrastructure, vandalism have defied all solutions and things are in fact getting worse. The citizens cannot wait anymore for reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity supply, which has been a mirage for too long.
The present power situation is shameful and totally unacceptable. Therefore, permanent, not piecemeal solutions must be implemented so that excuses and blame games for the failures in the sector would become things of the past. Let there be stable light. We say no to power disruptions and grid systems collapse.