FG APOLOGISES OVER RECENT NATIONAL GRID COLLAPSE

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The federal government has expressed regret for the recent national grid failure that left 17 states in the region without electricity for many days.

During a courtesy call to Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf on Thursday, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, apologised and called the situation “very unfortunate.”

Adelabu stated that in order to improve the nation’s power supply and lessen the frequency of systemic disruptions, the Federal Government was redesigning the national grid.

He claimed that the national grid was more than 50 years old and that its substations and lines, as well as its outdated transformers, were among its fragile, outdated, and decaying components.

According to Adelabu, the majority of the towers that were put into the system a long time ago were collapsing because of the impacts of climate change and weather, and they require ongoing repair.

The minister said, “This grid requires a lot of money to maintain.

”So, what we have now, we will continue to manage it and prevent frequent disturbances until we are able to overhaul this infrastructure 100 percent. ‘’

According to Adelabu, numerous programs were being implemented to guarantee that outdated infrastructure was replaced, and the Federal Government was redesigning the entire grid network.

Among the programs he mentioned were the Siemens initiative, also known as the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), which is still under progress.

He also mentioned the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB)-backed expansion projects of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Adelabu said that the pilot phase of the Siemens project had just been concluded, and it involved the importation of 10 power transformers as well as 10 power mobile substations.

He said that phase one of the Siemens project would soon commence, after which the grid performance would be better than what was being experienced presently.

The minister  said that the improvement witnessed in the power sector was not accidental, explaining that many old power transformers were replaced by new ones.

“ We have also installed and inaugurated all the mobile sub-stations where they were needed and that was what contributed to the stability being witnessed,” Adelabu said.

He appealed to Nigerians to protect the nation’s power infrastructure from vandals, as they cost a lot of money.

Earlier, Yusuf, represented by his Chief of Staff, Alhaji Shehu Sagagi, said that the state government was completing work at the 10 megawatt hydropower plant at Tiga and 6 megawatts at the Chalawa hydropower plant.

”They are assisting five per cent of the population as well as the installation of solar power in the metropolis, which has assisted the security situation in the state.

”When we came on board, we procured 500 transformers, and they were distributed to improve power supply,” he said.

Yusuf said that the state government would soon establish a state electricity market to attract the private sector.

He urged, ”We are calling on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and set up an emergency mini-grid power plant that will supply adequate voltage in the state and diversify generation to reduce dependence on the national grid.”

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