Adelabu: Inability to Fix Shiroro-Kaduna-Mando Line Contributing to Power Grid Fragility

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said the national electricity grid remains vulnerable to collapse partly because of government’s inability to repair a major transmission line in the northern region due to persisting insecurity.

The minister said that  failure to fix the Shiroro-Kaduna-Mando line had placed undue pressure on the grid, resulting in frequent collapse.

The entire northern Nigeria experienced a prolonged blackout in October 2024, following the vandalism of the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line.

The incident caused tripping of the 330kV circuit transmission lines between Benue and Enugu, as well as Shiroro and Kaduna, leading to widespread power outages.

The Senate had disclosed that the affected area was overrun by heavily armed terrorists, hindering efforts to restore electricity, though the ministry of power assured that it was addressing the issue working with security agencies.

Adelabu however clarified during 2025 budget defence session with the National Assembly joint committee on power the power line had yet to be fixed due to insecurity.

He said: “The Kaduna-Shiroro-Mando line, was one of the two major lines that transmit power to the north. The second one, which is the Ugwuaji-Makurdi line, was also vandalised, and we immediately rectified the line as the only source of power to the north.

“As I’m talking to you, we have not rectified the major line, which is the Shiroro-Mando-Kanduna line, which is why our grid is so fragile. This is because it’s only one line that is still supplying power to the north and is being burdened unnecessarily. We know the picture of this on the infrastructure technicalities.

“It is still the insecurity that has not let us to fix the Shiroro-Kanduna-Mando line.  We handed over to the security agencies, they have not even fixed it”, Adelabu said.

The minister decried that the government is struggling to manage the grid it inherited, which he said is very old and dilapidated.

He told the awmakers that the national grid suffered eight collapses in 2024 not 12 as widely reported,  out of which three were partial collapses as a result of generation problems.

He said: “I’m happy to also inform you that out of the eight collapses of the national grid that we experienced during 2024, five were full collapses, while three were actually partial collapses.

“Out of the five full collapses that we experienced, three out of them were actually due to generation problems. We had issues with reduction in generation compared to the power being taken up by the user, which affected the frequent imbalance on the grid. Two collapses were actually from vandalism problems.”

The minister said grid collapse would continue but government will ensure that it reduces the frequency of collapses and ensure a very short turnaround time to restore the grid,  stressing that vandalism remains one of the biggest challenges in the power sector.