Shouldn’t we sell the power grid for a penny?, by Kazeem Akintunde
Electricity generation, transmission and distribution has now become rocket science for us in Nigeria. This is because in spite of billions of Naira spent on the power sector in the last two decades, we are still generating darkness and distributing misery to households and businesses. Just last week, the National Power grid collapsed thrice.
The first collapse was recorded at exactly 6.58 pm, when power generation dropped to zero megawatts, throwing homes and businesses into complete darkness. Few hours later, the grid came up and some parts of the country were lucky to get electricity supply. Not long after, the entire system collapsed again, triggering another round of darkness across the country.
Electricity Distribution Companies were then confronted with the not too enviable task of telling their distraught customers what is happening. The third outage which happened on Saturday, forced the Nigerian Electricity Distribution Commission, (NEDC) to issue a statement.
The public notice read: “The Commission notes with concern, the recent escalating incidence of grid disturbances often leading to marked outage in several states, thus reversing many of the gains recently achieved in reducing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.
Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning (Saturday) indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815hrs and associated cascade of power plants shutdown arising from the loss of load. However, efforts to restore supply have advanced with power significantly restored, as at 1300hrs, in 33 states and the FCT.
In line with the provisions of the Electricity Act 2023, the unbundling of the System Operator function (ISO) out of Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc is ongoing with the expectation that an independent SO would engender more discipline in grid management and optimised investment in infrastructure.
In pursuit of finding a permanent resolution to the challenges of the national grid, the Commission shall shortly conduct an investigative public hearing with a view to identifying immediate and remote causes of recurring incidence of grid disturbances and widespread outages.
The date and venue of the public hearing will shortly be announced in the national dailies and stakeholders are encouraged to participate”. We await.
Despite this, many customers on Band A, who are paying for power through their noses with the commitment that they would get 20 hours of electricity in a day by the Electricity Distribution Companies, are once again, left to rave and rant, and make do with the unfortunate situation. After all, we are in Nigeria, where customer’s rights are flaunted with impunity, as there are no consequences.
The gradual collapse of the grid began when power generation dropped from 3.87 gigawatts to 3.56W and then 0.00GW at the first instance.
Although less than eight hours after the first incident, the system came up, DISCOs had to ration power to their high fee-paying customers. Some were lucky to get 50 megawatts while those not so lucky got 20 megawatts.
We were told to count ourselves lucky to have the grid back to life after ‘just a few hours in a coma’. Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, told Nigerians that they are lucky that the grid came back to life after few hours. Hear him: “We keep talking about grid collapse. grid collapse, grid collapse, whether it’s a total collapse, partial collapse, or slight trip-off. This is almost inevitable as it is today, given the state of our power infrastructure, the infrastructure is in deplorable conditions, so why won’t you have trip-offs? Why won’t you have collapses, either total or partial? It will continue to remain like this until we can overhaul the entire infrastructure. What we do now is to make sure that we manage it,” he declared.
According to the Minister, having multiple power grids in each region and state would ensure stability. He noted that the decentralisation of the power sector would facilitate plans to build grids in each region, and enabled by the Electricity Act signed by President Bola Tinubu in 2023.
Whilst it is true that the Electricity Act signed into law by President Tinubu has decentralised the power sector, confused Nigerians are trying to understand why most state Governors are not taking advantage of the Act, which has enabled all the subnational governments, the state government and the local government, to be able to participate in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. One would have thought that the disturbances of the national grid, which affects all the 36 states and the FCT would have propelled them into action, considering the importance of power for growth and development. With multiple grids in the regions and states, stable power supply will be catalysed.
Also, as each of the grids will be removed and shielded from each other, only the states where they belong will be affected in the event of an incident, not the entire nation. I think it’s high time the state Governors get to work to harness the impact of the Electricity Act. Since Adelabu insists that the frequent collapse of the national grid is inevitable without sufficient investment in the sector, charity must begin at home.
But the statement credited to the Minister who heads the Ministry tasked with ensuring the availability of cost-effective electric power supply makes one wonder if we shouldn’t sell our national grid for a penny. Of what use is a grid that breaks down every now and then and a Minister who has diagnosed the problem but cannot lead the nation towards a sustainable solution? Telling Nigerian not to expect power always due to dilapidated infrastructure seems nonchalant and insensitive to the plight of millions of an already impoverished population in almost perpetual darkness despite being citizens of a well-endowed resource-rich country.
While I appreciate his bluntness, the question remains what has he done as Minister of Power to upgrade those facilities? If he is thinking of decentralising the grid, has he had any discussions with state governors and other stakeholders in the field and developed a road map on how these can be achieved within the shortest possible time?
In Nigeria, we talk too much and achieve very little. Under his watch as Power Minister, the grid has collapsed on 13 different occasions, eight of them this year alone. While Adelabu is saying that most of the transformers are over 60 years old and we should not expect them to work at optimal level, what has happened to the huge investments in the sector and the revenue being generated by the DISCOS now that the sector has been liberalised? The private sector is also fully involved in the power sector now, when should Nigerians would start enjoying constant regular power?
After several billions of naira has been invested in the sector since 1999, little or no progress has been recorded and the sector is gradually becoming moribund. What is more puzzling is that in August, the same Minister received a draft report of the Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation (NIEP-SIP), a policy framework that the Minister said would not only respond to the current realities, but will as well anticipate future needs of the power sector.
Adelabu described the development as marking “a critical juncture in the nation’s journey toward achieving a robust, sustainable, and inclusive power sector that meets the aspirations of all Nigerians”.
Justifying the confusion of Nigerians over the power sector quagmire, former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Raji Fashola, told the world that generating and distributing electricity should not be rocket science. But it became a difficult nut for him to crack when he was appointed a super Minister superintending three ministries under the Muhammadu Buhari regime. The ‘load’ on his head was reduced when the Power Ministry was removed from his portfolio yet little or nothing changed.
It beats the imagination that we are still generating less than 15,000 megawatts of electricity in a country with a population of more than 200 million people. Transmitting and distributing what was generated is still a huge problem as the grid does not have the capacity to warehouse such amount of power. Pray, how do want to industrialise the entire nation? Are we not day-dreaming?
Despite the decentralisation of the power sector by the Federal Government, many state governments are not paying enough attention to the sector as they are comfortable buying generators to power their homes and offices.
President Bola Tinubu, in his 2024 New Year message to Nigerians, said that there has been a significant improvement in electricity supply and that more should be expected in the coming years. If he has forgotten, perhaps, we should remind him what he told us: “My administration recognises that no meaningful economic transformation can happen without a steady electricity supply in 2024,” he said on January 1, 2024. Despite these promises, the story of repeated grid failures has left millions of Nigerians grappling with prolonged power outages, exacerbating the challenges faced by businesses and households.
We claim that we are the giant of Africa but that is only in size. We are far away from countries in Africa that can boost of generating enough electricity for their people. In this regard, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Gabon, Ghana, Botswana, Senegal and Kenya are far ahead of Nigeria in terms of power generation and distribution to their people.
In Nigeria, only Abia State, through the dynamic effort of former Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji, seems to be getting it right as his company, Geometric Power, is doing wonders in the state through improved power generation and distribution.
Geometric Power is licensed to produce 188 Megawatts of electricity and is currently Nigeria’s only integrated power project, as it has its own embedded power plant, which enables it to generate and distribute its power, separating it from other electricity companies that only generate power and send it to the epileptic power grid.
Built at a cost of over $800 million, the company intends to provide electricity to Abia and neigbouring states in the south east and has already indicated willingness to replicate such in Lagos if the state government is ready for such partnership. Replicating what was done in Abia state across the country would be the right step in getting the country out of its reliance on the grid.
With Adedibu agreeing that the system of generating power and feeding it to the grid is outdated, it is time states like Lagos takes the bull by the horn and start a process of getting its residents out of the grid. Lagos should be thinking of generating and distributing nothing less than 40,000 megawatts of electricity to be able to adequately takes care of its power need. Two years ago, the state government released a 40-page document tagged ‘Lagos State Electricity policy’, but nothing has been heard of it since then.
Presently, Lagos generates an estimated 15,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity through diesel generators, but a mix of gas-sourced power with off-grid solutions means that the Lagos Electricity Market plan could potentially double the size of the state’s economy.
At the heart of the plan lies a bold vision: to achieve 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar photovoltaic generation by 2030. This ambitious target, if realized, would not only reduce reliance on expensive diesel generators but also usher in a new era of clean energy in the state.
Now is the time for Babajide Sanwo-Olu to roll up his sleeves and ensure that appropriate legislations are put in place while working towards the realisation of the stated objectives. If Lagos joins Abia among the states that can generate and distribute power to her citizens without reliance on the grid, we might as well sell the grid for a penny.
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