By Ogaga Ariemu
Nigerians have witnessed moments of incessant darkness occasioned by multiple National grid collapse across the country.
Unarguably in 2022, no Month has ended without a grid collapse resulting in darkness across the Country.
On record, January, February, March and April have all witnessed an uneven share of Electricity collapse in Nigeria. Worst was in February and earlier March where fuel scarcity aggravated the woes.
Businesses, government and individual homes experienced fair share of the energy crisis.
With the unreliable power supply homes, businesses, even government establishments bleed, thereby, any visible growth would have been relegated.
The Ministry of Power said in a statement that National grid collapse is caused by vandalism, however hinted “A detailed investigation into the immediate and remote causes of recurring grid failure is on going.”
Distribution companies across the country have seen their different share of this menace.
Electricity distribution companies(DisCos) also announced the breakdown, the fifth this year after prolonged hours of outage experienced in some parts of the country.
The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company said, “Dear Esteemed Customers, the management of Kaduna electric regrets to inform you that the current outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to a collapse of the national grid.
“The collapse occurred at about 18:29 pm this evening. Normal power supply shall be restored as soon as the grid is restored.
“We sincerely apologise for all inconveniences,” the spokesperson of the company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi said.
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) confirmed the collapse on Twitter late Friday Night.
“Please be informed that there has just been a national grid collapse causing an outage in our franchise areas. We apologize for the inconvenience caused and appeal that you bear with us while we await restoration from the TCN. We regret all inconvenience caused,” it said.
The Jos Electricity Distribution Company said the collapse happened at 6:30 p.m. across its distributing states of Bauchi, Benue, Gombe and Plateau.
“Dear customers, there was a loss of supply as a result of the system collapse of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) about 6:30 p.m. across all our franchise states of Bauchi, Benue, Gombe and Plateau,” it said.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company said, “Dear Esteemed Customers, a planned outage has been scheduled by our TCN partners for Saturday, April 9, 2022 between 9am and 3pm. This is to enable the TCN crew repair a wounded conductor between Tower #9 and #10 on the Ajah/Alagbon 330kV Line.”
The private distribution companies directly supply electricity to consumers and so have the responsibility to let their customers know the reason(s) for the power blackout.
Nigerian NewsDirect gathered that a similar grid collapse occurred twice in March 2022 at a time when the country was in a severe fuel crisis. The others happened in January and February this year.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, blamed the constant collapse on poor maintenance and shortage of gas. He, however, said the government had upgraded four power plants as part of efforts to improve the sector.
Aside from the grid collapse, however, Nigerians witness insufficient electricity supply with millions of homes in darkness.
This is because the nation generates less than 20 percent of the electricity it needs and can’t transmit and effectively distribute the little it generates.
The question that keeps begging for answer is how long would Nigeria and Nigerians continue in the ripple of unreliable power supply?
The apparent lack of growth of Small Medium Scale Enterprises(SMEs) has been attributed to the lack of constant power supply which results in overbearing costs for these businesses to break even.
This has become the biggest setback to Nigeria’s economy.
Despite the previous administration’s privatisation of the industry with a bid to address the situation, there is little or no progress recorded yet. If the nation must attain the level of energy sufficiency, then it must get the different chains of transmission and distribution of electricity at optimal capacity.
No doubt, attempt to salvage the situation is yielding results as power supply has been restored in some parts of Abuja, other cities, however, Nigeria’s power challenge remains worrisome and in dire need of solution.
Experts React
An Energy, Agro consultant and foremost Nigeria Bamboo Expert, Mr Eleojo Joseph in a chat with Nigerian NewsDirect said National grid should be disbanded, advising that electricity should be localised across States.
He also suggested that the 36 State Governments including Federal Capital Territory should implement the new law signed by the President Muhammadu Buhari to ease whatever electricity generated by the national grid.
In his words, “The MDs of NERC and TCN should be removed immediately and a new and competent interim management should be constituted.
“Immediate implementation on the new law signed by the president should be implemented by States in Generating electricity and easing whatever is generated from the national grid.
“National grid should be disbanded. Let electricity be localised.
“NERC guidelines should be reviewed immediately to encourage electricity investors and investment in the sector.
“Renewable power generation players are notoriously ignored and their investment is going downhill.
“National grid is a huge fraud. Nigerians should look deep into the background of the M.D of TCN. He is a core NEPA man.
“NERC is the major problem of electricity generation and distribution in Nigeria. Nigerians should look into who is the Chairman and CEO of NERC and the law of NERC. A critical look at NERC guidelines and regulations will open the eyes of Nigerians,” he stated.
On his part, CEO, Sage Consulting & Communications, Mr Bode Fadipe noted that the incessant national grid collapse is a result of vandalism.
According to him, “It is becoming intriguing that our grid will be under this amount of pressure that throws the nation into blackout for a considerable length of time.
“The incidences of grid system outages arising from vandalism raises a lot of questions. For instance why are we suddenly having a series of acts of vandalism that is throwing the nation into darkness? Why are vandals suddenly interested in the 330kV lines? Was the line vandalised on load or when the lines were cold?
“In terms of implication, it means we don’t have a reliable grid and that speaks to our economic growth and development. Companies that would have loved to invest in our economy will be reluctant to do so because we have serious power issues.
“I think a major solution is a disaggregation of the grid in such a that geopolitical zones can stand on their own so that if there is a problem in one part of the country, it won’t affect the entire country,” he said.
As a nation in dire need of development and growth, reliable power supply is non-negotiable.
Nigeria government should scale up efforts on renewable energy as a panacea to energy challenges.
All Parastatals, Agencies of power Ministry should wake up to its responsibility in repositioning Nigeria’s power sector because industrialisation is imminently powered by adequate electricity supply.