Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has disclosed that 48 interconnected mini-grid projects are under construction across 19 states.
Managing director of the REA, Abba Aliyu, stated this in Abuja during a benchmarking visit by officials of the Zanzibar Utilities Regulatory Authority (ZURA).
According to him, the projects are under Nigeria’s new mini-grid regulatory framework, marking a shift from small-scale pilot projects to utility-scale off-grid electricity deployment.
Aliyu said the projects are being implemented under the interconnected mini-grid (IMG) regulatory framework introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
He pointed out that the projects which cut across 10 electricity distribution companies (DisCos), demonstrate how regulatory reforms can translate into infrastructure development, job creation and improved electricity access for underserved communities.
“The mini-grid regulations last year had a cap of one megawatt. We couldn’t build a mini-grid above one megawatt,” Aliyu said.
“What we showed the regulator, the economics and the technical data led to a change in the regulation. Now we can build interconnected mini-grids of up to 10 megawatts and isolated mini-grids of up to five megawatts.”
The REA boss said the regulatory change has transformed the off-grid market by enabling larger and more commercially viable projects.
He said developers have evolved from operating as contractors to becoming utility-scale operators capable of managing larger renewable energy portfolios.
“We are no more contractors. When we created that ecosystem and opportunity, they started transitioning from contractors to developers. Now we expect them to move from developers to utility-scale managed companies,” Aliyu said.
The managing director said the interconnected mini-grid programme is expected to deliver 252,505 new and improved electricity connections, 213.3 megawatt-peak (MWp) of solar photovoltaic capacity, 166.1 megawatt-hours (MWh) of battery storage, and 82.5 megawatts of peak load.
He said the agency now works with more than 150 renewable energy service companies (RESCOs), some of which manage portfolios of about 30 megawatts and are expanding beyond Nigeria.
