FG assures of reliable Power Grid for efficient electricity supply

The Federal Government has assured that it is working towards reliable power grid to ensure efficient electricity supply in the country.

The Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, gave the assurance in Abuja on Monday at an interactive session on “Frequent National Grid collapse”, with the Senate Committee on Power and critical stakeholders.

Aliyu said that there had been three collapses from March to April, saying that lately, cases of system collapse have been on the decline.

He said that the country has witnessed improvement in the grid stability over the years.

“For example in 2017, we had 15 total collapse incidences, in 2018, we had 12, in 2019, we had nine in 2020, we had four and in 2021, two.

“This year, we have had three collapses due to severe disturbances on the grid,’’ he said.

The minister said that system collapse usually occurred when there were imbalances between the connected generation, transmission and distribution network.

He however, said that government was doing everything within its power to ensure that the country had a reliable grid.

“This administration has invested huge sums to see that Nigeria has a stable, reliable grid transporting quality power.

“Another challenge we are having are issues of right-of-way across various states.

“Just recently, I raised this issue with the governors during one of their meetings. I am pleased to inform you that we are making significant progress.

“I am pleased to inform you that we are making significant progress.

“Once we fully execute these projects across the states, coupled with the efforts we are making to increase operational capacity, we can assure you that we will have a strengthened and reliable grid,’’ he said.

Earlier, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Sen. Gabriel Suswam, said he was concerned about the collapse of the grid which started in March and has been reoccurring.

“There are different explanations from the different parastatals and the ministry. Nobody actually knows what the problems are.

“Nigerians have been subjected to very high epileptic service of power. The tariff has not abated, rather, we hear rumours of tariff increase when people are not getting the energy they are paying for,’’ he added.