The Federal Government on Monday announced the idea of a decentralized national grid to ensure that the entire country will not be thrown into darkness at the same time if anything happens to the central grid.
The government also said that it was working hard to restore power in the 17 northern states, adding that security challenges has been the reason behind the delay in fixing the vandalized facilities.
Speaking to State House correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential Villa, Abuja, Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, said grid failure in the country was as a result of obsolete facilities.
He said one of the ways to stop nationwide blackouts is by having states or regional grids so that a problem in a particular line, will not affect the other.
Fielding questions on incessant blackouts as witnessed in recent times, 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, which meant that we have 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 national grid whose transmission lines are weak, the towers are falling, and the substations, the transformers are old. In fact, the transformer that actually exploded in Jebba was 47 years old. We’ve been trying to revamp this, to change them, but they cannot all be changed overnight.
“So it’s like you’re having a rickety car. You’ll be expecting breakdown once in a while. What we continue to do is continue to manage the grid to prevent frequent occurrence of the grid disturbance, until we’re able to completely overhaul the grid itself, then we’ll have reliable grid.
“Secondly, we are working on establishing what is called 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, is the fact that the world has moved beyond having a centralized grid. Grid must be regionalized. We must have state grids so that each of the regionalized grids will be insulated from each other. A problem in a particular line will not affect the others.
“That is what we are working on. Until that is done, we believe that we’ll keep managing what we have and reduce the frequent occurrence of the grid disturbance.”
He said that he briefed President Bola Tinubu on the blackout in the northern states, adding that the President has directed the National Security Adviser, NSA, to provide security to the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, to fix the vandalized facilities.
According to him, “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, which was basically due to the vandalization of the transmission lines of the Shiroro Kaduna line, which is the major line that supply electricity to the north.
“The transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, had already set out to fix this line. What they have asked for, which has been 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 very soon this will be fully restored.
“We have also explored the alternative line of providing light to the north through the Ikot Ekpene substation 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 that at the last FEC one of the approvals for the Ministry of Power was actually the upgrade of the Shiroro Kaduna transmission line, which is 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 that we have in Nigeria, and we believe that it required an upgrade, and 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 northern states will have an embedded utility, solar scale solar source.
“All the 20 states will be insulated and immune from each other, and we have actually 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 that 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 be able to enjoy better supply.”
On whether there is a timeline to fix Shiroro Hydroelectric Power, he said, “Let me tell you, fixing a transmission line within three days to five days we should finish. That is where we work under standard temperature and pressure STP, when there are no security threats when you are sure of your safety in the area.
“Why it has escalated to this level is because we’ve not been able to guarantee the security of lives of those that will work there. But Mr President has assured me that he has also instructed the NSA, the chief of defense 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 very soon, light will be restored, and we must all collectively protect our national grid to avoid further vandalisation.”
Further asked whether Nigerians will be compensated for the days they were in darkness, the Minister responded in the affirmative.
He said: “Yes, what we are working on like I’m going to have a meeting with the chairman of NERC, and all the DISCOs, for those days during which they suffered blackout there should not be billing of any sort, for any customer, be it household, customer of the office consumer or industrial consumer, they will be immune for billing for those periods.”