By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Federal Government has considered a decentralised national grid to ensure that if the central grid is damaged, the entire country will not be thrown into darkness at the same time.
The government also said that it was working hard to restore power in the 17 northern states, adding that a security challenge had caused the delay in fixing the vandalized facilities.
Speaking to State House correspondents yesterday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential Villa in Abuja, Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu said grid failure in the country was caused by obsolete facilities.
He said one way to prevent a nationwide blackout is to have state or regional grids so that a problem in one line does not affect the others.
Fielding questions on the incessant blackouts witnessed recently, the Minister said: “The grid actually was disturbed one time, and we deliberately shut it down the second time because of the explosion of the transformer at Jeba plant before this. The last disturbance on the grid was about four months ago, meaning we had been managing the grid.
“Let me tell you, the truth of the matter is we have old infrastructure. We have a national grid that is more than 50 years old. We have a national grid whose transmission lines are weak, the towers are falling, and the substations and the transformers are old. The transformer that exploded in Jeba was 47 years old. We’ve been trying to revamp and change this, but they cannot all be changed overnight.
“So it’s like having a rickety car. You’ll expect a breakdown once in a while. What we continue to do is manage the grid to prevent frequent grid disturbances until we’re able to overhaul the grid itself completely. Then, we’ll have a reliable grid.
“Secondly, we are establishing a super grid, which is a backup of failover, optional grid. If the national grid has a problem, there will be an alternative route through which power can be transmitted. That is what we are working on.
“Then, lastly, there is the fact that the world has moved beyond having a centralized grid. The grid must be regionalized. We must have state grids so that each regionalized grid will be insulated. A problem in a particular line will not affect the others.
“That is what we are working on. Until that is done, we believe we’ll keep managing what we have and reduce the frequency of the grid disturbance.”
He said that he briefed President Bola Tinubu on the blackout in the northern states and added that the President had directed the National Security Adviser, NSA, to provide security to the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, to fix the vandalized facilities.
He said, “My meeting with Mr President, among other things, included the issue of the disturbance in electricity supply to the northern part of Nigeria, about 17 states. We discussed the root cause of this, basically the vandalization of the transmission lines of the Shiroro Kaduna line, which is the major line that supplies electricity to the north.
“The transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, had already set out to fix this line. What they have asked for, provided to them now, is the security cover of the National Security Adviser through the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Air Staff to enable them to restore the damaged lines. We are optimistic that this will be fully restored very soon.
“We have also explored the alternative line of providing light to the north through the Ikot Ekpene sub-station supplied from the Calabar plant. But the line got cut along the line, and we’re also trying to fix that. And if you remember, at the last FEC, one of the approvals for the Ministry of Power was upgrading the Shiroro Kaduna transmission line, the major line that supplies electricity to the northern part of the country.
“We already have approval for this. It’s one of the oldest transmission lines in Nigeria, and we believe that it requires an upgrade. Through the magnanimity of Mr President and the Federal Executive Council, we got approval to fix the line on a permanent basis. Once this is done, I believe that power to the North will be more stable than we are experiencing right now.
“But before I end this, let me also state that the world is moving. This is the 21st century, and we believe that the most effective way of supplying uninterrupted, functional, stable, and reliable electricity to the northern part of Nigeria is through our distributed power model, whereby each of the states of the north will have an embedded utility, solar scale solar source.
“All the 20 states will be insulated and immune from each other, and we have made progress in this, as we have interested contractors and financiers that are ready to install a 100 megawatt each for each of the 20 northern states, which is scalable to 50 megawatts at first, then upgraded 100 megawatts. When we have this, the power supply to the North will be reliable because of the advantage of the sun that they have, where solar will be highly effective.
“The lowest number of hours a state in the north enjoys in terms of sunshine is 10 hours. And once you have this, we believe that the pressure on the national grid from the northern part of Nigeria will be lower, and our people will enjoy better supply.”
On whether there is a timeline to fix Shiroro Hydroelectric Power, he said, “Let me tell you, we should finish fixing a transmission line within three to five days. That is where we will work under standard temperature and pressure STP when there are no security threats, and you are sure of your safety in the area.
“It has escalated to this level because we’ve not been able to guarantee the security of the lives of those working there. But Mr President has assured me that he has also instructed the NSA, the chief of defence staff, the chief of Army staff, Chief of Air Staff, to provide the required security for the people that will fix the demolished line.
“With the provision of full security, the TCN staff will have the confidence, together with the contractors, to go to the field and fix it. So I’m just appealing to our northern brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, to bear with us that light will be restored very soon, and we must collectively protect our national grid to avoid further vandalisation.”
Further, the minister responded in the affirmative when asked whether Nigerians would be compensated for their dark days.
