The Federal Government admitted yesterday that frequent national grid collapses in the country are far from over.
Speaking in Abuja while defending the 2025 budget before the Senate Committee on Power, chaired by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, attributed the grid’s vulnerability to unresolved issues, including the inability to repair a critical transmission line in the Northern region due to ongoing insecurity.
Adelabu acknowledged that while grid collapses would persist, efforts would focus on reducing their frequency and ensuring swift restoration. He emphasized that vandalism remains one of the biggest obstacles in the power sector.
The minister also announced plans to invest N36 billion in transformer distribution across the country’s six geopolitical zones to enhance power distribution infrastructure and tackle systemic issues.
He further disclosed that the government is set to begin Phase 1 of upgrading five major substations, while noting that over seven million customers still rely on estimated billing.
Adelabu highlighted that the unresolved Shiroro-Kaduna-Mando transmission line continues to strain the grid, contributing to frequent collapses.
“We recognize the issues with full or partial grid collapses, but our focus is on reducing the time it takes to restore power. We are actively collaborating with security agencies to achieve this.’’ Adelabu also highlighted the impact of the damaged Shiroro-Kaduna-Mando line which had been out of service since a vandalism incident in October 2024.
The minister, who noted that this failure has placed immense pressure on the grid, leading to frequent collapses, said: “The Kaduna-Shiroro-Mando line was one of the two major lines transmitting power to the north.
‘’The second, the Ugwuaji-Makurdi line, was also vandalized but has been repaired. The Shiroro-Mando-Kaduna line, however, remains down due to insecurity. This is why our grid is so fragile, as it relies on a single line, causing unnecessary strain.”
He emphasized that while grid collapses are expected to continue, the government is focused on reducing their frequency and ensuring quick restoration times, just as he underscored that collaboration, especially with the office of the National Security Adviser, is critical to addressing vandalism, which remains one of the most significant challenges facing the power sector.
Adelabu, who decried the fact that the government was struggling to manage the grid it inherited, since it is very old and dilapidated, however, informed the lawmakers that the national grid suffered eight collapses in 2024, not 12 as widely reported, out of which three were partial collapses as a result of generation problems.
He said: “I’m 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 partial collapses.
‘’Of the five full collapses that we experienced, three were actually due to generation problems. We had issues with cellular reduction in generation compared to the power being taken up by the user, which affected the frequent imbalance on the grid. Two collapses were actually from vandalism problems.”
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