Power Outage: FG May Establish Grids at States, Regional Levels

*Says it’s working hard to restore electricity in northern states

*Pleads with all states to fully implement new minimum wage

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Federal Government has hinted of the possibility of establishing a decentralised 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.
It also gave an assurance that it was working hard to restore power in the 17 northern states with an explanation that security challenge has been the reason behind the delay in fixing the vandalized facilities.
Addressing newsmen on Monday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, attributed grid failure in the country to obsolete facilities.
According to him, one of the ways to stop nationwide blackout is by having states or regional grids so that a problem in a particular line, will not affect the other.
Answering questions on incessant blackout as witnessed in recent times, Adelabu 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 Jebba 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 grid 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.”
The Minister said he briefed President Bola Tinubu on the blackout in the northern states, adding that the President has directed the National Security Adviser to provide security to the Transmission Company of Nigeria to fix the vandalized facilities.
His words: “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 vandalization of the transmission lines of Shiroro-Kaduna line, which is the major line that supply electricity to the north.
“The transmission Company of Nigeria 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 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 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 that at the last FEC meeting 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 supply 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 an 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 19 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 19 northern states, which is scalable to 50 megawatt at first, then upgraded to 100 megawatts. When we have this, the power supply to the North will be reliable because of the advantage of sun that they have, where solar will be highly effective.
“The lowest number of hours that a state in the north enjoy 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.”
Asked if there is 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 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 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.”
On whether Nigerians will be compensated for the days they were in darkness, the Minister responded in the affirmative.
According to him: “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.”
Also on Monday, the Federal Government pleaded with states that have not started implementation of the N70,000, new national minimum wage to start payment forthwith.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, who made the plea, said government at the centre is committed to fully implementing the newly approved minimum wage.
Speaking to newsmen after meeting with President Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, Akume said the federal government was determined to ensure that workers receive a fair wage, describing the implementation as complete and uncompromising.
Commenting on the level of the government’s commitment to the implementation of the new minimum wage, the SGF said “quite frankly, the federal government is totally committed to this fully, there’s no half measure about this at all. It’s full”.
He said that President Tinubu prioritised the new minimum wage issue early in his administration, establishing a tripartite committee to examine all aspects of wage adjustment.
This committee, he explained, included representatives from the federal government, state governors, and the organized private sector, resulting in a consensus on a new wage standard.
He noted that some state governments have already started implementing the wage increase, with a few states even surpassing the ₦70,000 threshold.
Akume commended the states that have initiated payments, expressing hope that those who were yet to start will soon begin honoring the new wage commitment.
He further encouraged the affected states to fulfill their obligations promptly, underscoring the importance of timely compliance.
According to him, “The issue of the new minimum wage has always been central to the thinking of the government of President Bola Tinubu, and that was why he quickly put in place a tripartite arrangement to look at all the issues, and this was properly carried out.
“The governors were represented, the federal government was represented, the organized private sector was also part of it. So we arrived at the new minimum wage.
“We are very satisfied with it and some state governments have started implementing. Others have even gone beyond ₦70,000. So I believe that there’s no problem with that whatsoever.
“We applaud those who have started. Those who have not started, we just want to appeal to them to start the payment”, the Minister further said.