Again, the national electricity power grid collapsed for the first time in 2024 on February 4, throwing the entire country into total darkness.
The power generated on the grid slumped significantly at about 11:51am, falling from about 3,852mw at 6am to as low as 59mw at noon on that fateful day.
At about 5pm, it picked up, hitting 736mw, even though many parts of Nigeria, including Abuja, the seat of government remained without power supply.
At the time it collapsed, the grid managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria had 20 power plants completely off, with just Ibom Power online.
“Prior to the incident, total generation on the grid was 3,901.25mw at 08:00 hours, a little over three hours before the time of partial collapse. It is important to note that low power generation has persisted since January 2024, to date, exacerbating daily due to the lingering gas constraint.
“According to the National Control Centre (NCC), the Internet of Things (IoT) revealed that just before the partial disturbance, which occurred at 11:21 hours today, Sapele Steam and Egbin Substations lost a total of 29.32mw & 343.84mw at 11:20:14 hours & 11:20:17 hours respectively, totaling 373.16mw.
“This, combined with the current low power generation due to gas constraints, caused the imbalance leading to the partial system disturbance,” a statement signed by the General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, Ndidi Mbah, stated.
According to the statement, gas constraints continue to impact grid flexibility and stability.
“Ensuring sufficient gas supply to power generating stations is crucial for grid stability as sufficient generation allows for better grid management in the event of sudden generation losses like this. TCN will investigate the cause of tripping of Sapele Steam & Egbin power generating units,” Mbah said.
It is ironic that Nigeria, a nation of over 200 million people, still depends on less than 5,000mw to power their homes and businesses on a daily basis, even though individuals self-generate over 40,000mw.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that Nigeria loses as much as $29 billion that is 5.8 percent of its annual Gross Domestic Product, due to a lack of energy and unreliable power supplies.
“It is ironic that Nigeria, a nation of over 200 million people, still depends on less than 5,000mw to power their homes and businesses on a daily basis”
The TCN which is the only segment of the electricity value chain wholly owned and controlled by the Federal Government, has variously said that acquiring a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, which is used for controlling, monitoring, and analysing industrial devices and processes, would markedly reduce supply disruptions.
On his part, the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu, has identified the root cause of the ongoing electricity blackout as the shortage of gas supply to electricity generation companies and outstanding debts owed to producers.
However, he offered reassurance to Nigerians, stating that measures are being taken to address these challenges, leading to a gradual increase in the availability of electricity across the nation.
The minister made this known on X (Twitter) through his media aide, Bolaji Tunji, on February 8, 2024.
Electricity crisis has been a perennial problem in the country.
Despite the unbundling and privatisation of the power sector in Nigeria, not much improvement has been achieved thus leaving a majority of the citizens to resort to alternative en ergy sources which are most times considered unsafe.
Nigeria has spent billions of dollars, secured through loans, on funding the transmission infrastructure but keeps experiencing collapses of the national grid.
During the administration of the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria secured about $7.5 billion loans to boost transmission infrastructure.
The loans were obtained from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the government of Japan, and the Islamic Development Bank, among others.
Under the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project, Nigeria got a $486 million loan from the World Bank.
The country also took from the Bank another $2.5 billion to finance the Siemens deal targeted at improving the transmission network.
Nigeria also obtained a $242.4 million loan from Japan for the implementation of the Lagos and Ogun Power Transmission System Improvement Project.
AfDB in 2019 approved a $210 million loan for the upgrade of the electricity transmission and distribution network.
Former Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had in 2020, said the government requested a $3 billion loan from the World Bank to finance the improvement of the transmission network. The fund was released to the country in four tranches of $750 million each.
IsDB in 2022 approved a total financing of $1.8 billion for Nigeria, with the electricity loan expected to be a part of it.
With these funds injected into the system, the country still experiences challenges in the power transmission system.
The grid collapse has far-reaching implications. It causes a significant setback for Nigeria’s economy and development.
Nigerians are estimated to lose billions each year due to power outages, coupled with the impact on quality of life. Many find it difficult to work, study, or run their businesses when such a national blackout occurs.
The latest national grid collapse came at a time when Nigerians are battling with the high cost of Premium Motor Spirit also known as petrol because of the removal of subsidies on the commodity by the Federal Government nine months ago.
Due to epileptic power supply across the country, homes and businesses mostly rely on gasoline generators to provide electricity. With the spike in the cost of fuel, many have found it difficult to continue using generators that run on fuel.
As the country experiences national grid instability, the Federal Government has promised to work towards increasing the power generation capacity to 20,000 megawatts by 2026.
For Nigeria to have accelerated industrial development, it must boost the power sector. As a way of dealing with the national grid challenge, the country should decentralize infrastructure in the power sector and put in place an efficient management of the system to boost electricity supply.
Since efforts made so far to boost the power sector have not yielded significant results, the government should also see the need to channel more investments in renewable energy sources to form a substantial part of the energy mix in the country.
At a time when the world is battling with the threat of global warming and climate change, the transition to renewable energy is no longer a choice but a necessity.
Nigeria must join the rest of the world to have a seamless transition through the use of new technologies, policies enactment and implementation of those policies.
The country must implement policies that will make renewable energies not only affordable but sustainable and it needs to also monitor implementation of those policies.
