As Nigerians continue to battle darkness due to frequent collapse of the National Grid, the nation’s Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, has disclosed that the problem may persist for a while.
He made this known while appearing before the Senate Committee on Power in Abuja.
At least, the national grid, according to reports, collapsed 12 times in 2024.
This sad development has been negatively impacting businesses and discouraging investors in the country.
However, Nigerians’ hope of having a reprieve in 2025 has been dashed following the disclosure by Adelabu that the Federal Government is yet to find the solution to the frequent collapse of the National Grid.
Adelabu said the system may continue to crash in 2025, so long as insecurity, vandalism, and poor infrastructure remain the major threats to the grid.
The Minister who was at the senate to defend the power sector budget for 2025, also disputed the widely quoted figure that the country’s national grid collapsed 12 times in 2024, representing at least one collapse in each of the 12 months of the year.
Faulting the figure, the minister said the grid collapsed “only eight times and not 12 as always reported.”
He said to achieve a permanent end to grid collapse would require concerted efforts, including tackling insecurity and the frequent vandalism of power infrastructure.
“There is no guarantee that there will be no more grid collapse. What we can do is to make sure that it is minimal and that after a collapse, we rectify it as quickly as possible,” the minister stated.
He told the committee that the ministry was working assiduously with security agencies to manage the situation and restore the system back to work as soon as another collapse occurred.
According to Adelabu, the Ministry had tried to stabilise the grid last year but to no avail.
“We had plans to stabilise the grid and other transmission infrastructure. I am 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,” he said.
He said out of the five full collapses that the nation recorded, three of them were actually due to generation problems where the ministry contested faced issues with sudden reductions in generation compared to the power being taken up by the users.
According to the minister, the situation affected the frequency imbalance on the grid, citing recurrent vandalism and insecurity as major reasons for the surge.