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POWER OUTAGES: I’m sorry, power minister, tells Nigerians
The Nigerian Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, clarified the cause of the country’s power supply drop.
For over a week, there have been outages in many parts of the country.
This situation has prompted many to ask: when will it be resolved?
The national grid has collapsed over 100 times despite the trillions of naira invested in the sector. Power failures inflict high economic and social costs, with outages estimated to cost Nigeria around $1billion annually
Recognising what many are passing through in the country as a result of epileptic power supply, Adelabu, on Tuesday, during a press conference, apologised to Nigerians over the current power situation, promising improvements across the country in the coming days.
“I want to apologise to Nigerians, officially now, coming from me as the minister of power, for this temporary issue that is leading to hardship being experienced, especially during this dry season, where there is so much heat everywhere,” he said.
“Businesses are being affected, schools have been affected, and industries have been affected. It is not our wish to find ourselves in this situation, but it is due to some factors that are actually beyond our control.”
The minister explained that the current problem was a result of shortfalls to the generation companies due to the huge amounts of money owed to gas suppliers.
As expected, the current war in the Middle East could further worsen the problems.
The country’s power sector relies on gas-fired plants. But they have continued to face disruptions largely due to inadequate gas supply, pipeline maintenance issues, ageing infrastructure, and liquidity constraints.
“These issues collectively impact both the quantity and quality of gas delivered to power plants, leading to underutilisation of installed generation capacity, increased outages, and inefficiencies in power production,” Adelabu said.
To address this challenge, the minister suggested “scaling up renewable energy solutions, particularly off-grid and mini-grid systems..
“Renewable energy offers a cost-effective and sustainable pathway to expand access without overburdening the national grid,” he said.
He also called for the integration of additional renewable energy into the grid. The minister said this will help diversify energy sources and reduce overall generation costs, particularly by lowering dependence on gas-fired power.
“Integrating utility-scale solar, hydro, and other renewables will also enhance energy security and support climate objectives,” he said.
“This will require investments in grid monitoring and control systems and system planning to effectively manage intermittency while maintaining grid stability.”