We need to overhaul Nigeria’s 50-year-old national grid, says Adelabu

Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, says the country will continue to experience grid disturbances until there is a complete overhaul of the system.

Adelabu spoke to journalists on Monday after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.

The minister, who apologised to Nigerians over the incessant power outages due to the frequent grid collapses, blamed the challenge on obsolete equipment that is 50 years old.

“Before this, the last disturbance of the grid was about four months ago, which meant that we have been managing the grid,” he said.

“Let me tell you the truth of the matter is, we have old infrastructure. We have a national grid that is more than 50 years old. 

“We have national grid whose transmission lines are weak, the towers are falling and the substations, the transformers are old. In fact, the transfer that actually exploded in jeba was 47 years old. We’ve been trying to revamp this to change them, but they cannot all be changed overnight.

“So it’s like you’re having a rickety car. You’ll be expecting breakdown once in a while.

“What we continue to do is to manage the grid to prevent frequent occurrence of the grid disturbance, until we’re able to completely overhaul the grid itself, then we’ll have a reliable grid.

“We’ve been trying to revamp this to change them, but they cannot all be changed overnight.”

To mitigate future outages, Adelabu said plans are underway to get a ‘super grid’—a backup system designed to provide alternative power routes during disruptions.

The national grid has collapsed eight times in 2024.

However, according to the Association of Power Generating Companies (APGC), the national grid has collapsed 162 times in the last 11 years.