By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has attributed the frequent collapse of the national electricity grid to insecurity in northern Nigeria.
He said the government has been unable to repair a central transmission line in the northern region due to persistent insecurity.
The Minister said that failure to fix the Shiroro-Kaduna-Mando line has placed undue pressure on the grid, resulting in frequent collapses.
In October 2024, northern Nigeria experienced a prolonged blackout following the vandalism of the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line.
The incident caused the 330kV circuit transmission lines between Benue, Enugu, Shiroro, and Kaduna to trip, leading to widespread power outages.
The Senate had disclosed that the affected area is overrun by heavily armed terrorists, hindering efforts to restore electricity.
However, the Ministry of Power assured it was addressing the issue by working with security agencies.
However, Adelabu clarified during the 2025 budget defence session with the National Assembly joint committee on the power that the power line had yet to be fixed due to insecurity.
He said, “The Kaduna-Shiroro-Mandoline was one of the two major lines that transmit power to the North. The second one, the Ugwuaji-Makurdi line, was also vandalized, and we immediately rectified the line as the only source of power to the North.
“As I’m talking to you, we have not rectified the major line, which is the Shiroro-Mando-Kanduna line, which is why our grid is so fragile. This is because it’s only one line still supplying power to the North and is being burdened unnecessarily. We know the picture of this on the infrastructure technicalities.
“The insecurity still has not led us to fix the Shiroro-Kanduna-Mando line. We handed it over to the security agencies; they have not even fixed it”, Adelabu said.
The Minister decried that the government is struggling to manage its inherited grid, which is “still unfortunately very old and dilapidated.
He told the lawmakers that the National grid suffered eight collapses in 2024, not 12 as widely reported, out of which three were partial collapses caused by generation problems.
He said, “I’m happy to also inform you that out of the eight collapses of the national grid that we experienced during 2024, five were full collapses, while three were partial collapses. Three of the five full collapses were due to generation problems.
“We had issues with cellular reduction in generation compared to the power being taken up by the user, which affected the frequent imbalance on the grid. Two collapses were actually from vandalisation problems.”
The Minister said grid collapses would continue, but the government will ensure that they are reduced in frequency and endure a very short turnaround time to restore the grid.
He stressed that vandalisation remains one of the biggest challenges in the power sector.
