Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has said electricity supply will begin to improve within 48 to 72 hours, as the Federal Government moves to address generation and transmission constraints behind the recent blackouts in parts of the country.
In a statement titled “Update on Power Situation,” made available on Saturday, Tegbe blamed the shortfall on planned maintenance at the Egbin Power Station in Lagos, the country’s largest thermal plant, which accounts for about 16 per cent of electricity supplied to the national grid.
“I am aware of the strain that the current outages have placed on households and businesses in four affected states, including Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory,” the minister said.
He explained that the maintenance work at Egbin, together with gas supply constraints at some thermal stations, had cut the volume of electricity available on the grid, forcing operators to resort to load shedding.
“Planned maintenance at Egbin Power Station and constraints in gas supply to some thermal power stations have reduced the amount of electricity available on the national grid. Grid operators have, therefore, implemented load shedding in some areas to manage the shortfall,” he said.
Tegbe also identified sabotage of critical transmission lines as a further challenge, noting that the damage had limited the use of alternative routes to supply power, particularly in Lagos.
He assured Nigerians that the ministry was working with relevant operators to restore affected generating units in phases.
“My team and I are working to return the affected generating units to service in phases, with the first units coming back online within the next 48 to 72 hours,” he said.
“We are also working with operators to improve gas supply and accelerate repairs to the damaged infrastructure,” he added.
The assurance comes amid complaints by electricity consumers in Lagos and Ogun states over prolonged blackouts, which residents say have made the prevailing hot weather increasingly unbearable.
TCN, Ikeja Electric trade blame
The crisis has also sparked a disagreement between the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Ikeja Electric over the cause of the interruptions.
In a statement on Friday, TCN accused Ikeja Electric of misleading customers by blaming outages recorded on November 3 and 4 on grid instability. The transmission company said inadequate gas supply to thermal plants and reduced hydroelectric generation were responsible for the drop in energy available for distribution.
“TCN can only transmit the energy made available to it and cannot transmit energy that is not generated,” the company said.
TCN added that the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) had not identified any failure of its transmission network as the cause of the disruptions.
According to the company, 68 per cent of interruptions on feeders supplying Ikeja Electric resulted from frequency-control load shedding due to low generation. Another 26 per cent was attributed to Ikeja Electric’s alleged failure to comply with load allocations, as well as faults and maintenance on its distribution network. The remaining six per cent came from TCN’s planned maintenance, switching operations or line limitations.
The disagreement followed Ikeja Electric’s apology to customers on some Band A feeders after it failed to meet the minimum daily supply requirement of 20 hours on November 3 and 4.
Tegbe had earlier linked the disruptions to maintenance and operational challenges in the power sector, gas shortages at thermal stations and reduced output from hydropower plants. He said the Federal Government was engaging TCN, NISO and the electricity distribution companies to restore normal supply.
NISO had also attributed the nationwide decline in power generation to gas supply constraints affecting thermal plants and reduced output from hydroelectric stations.
