The Nigerian national power grid has collapsed at least 115 times in the last nine years despite gulping trillions, thereby causing massive economic losses and causing nationwide outrage.
Official data from Independent System Operator (ISO), a section of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, revealed that these collapses occurred between November 2013 to April 2022.
This period covers the years after the power generation and distribution assets were privitised by the Federal Government.
In November 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan administration handed over power sector assets to private firms to enhance efficiency, better management and accountability.
Federal Government had spent about N1.7 trillion on the sector with plans to spend additional $3 billion in the future.
On transmission segment alone, $1.6 billion investment has been pumped into it majorly from donor funds and borrowings from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
According to the Association of Power Generation Companies, available power output at the point of privatization was 3,400MW. The output didn’t go beyond 4,000MW despite billions expended as bailouts and nine years after the exercise.
The World Bank has recently estimated that Nigeria requires 40,000MW to really run its economy.
After the privatization, the generating capacity has risen to 12,522MW but only about 4,000MW is delivered daily to homes and businesses through the sole transmission and 11 distribution companies.
The power shutdown was occasioned by number of factors that include infrastructure vandalism, decayed infrastructure, gas shortages, low rainfall, poor funding, among others.
Analysis show that there were 42 of such collapses in just a year (2010) and over 10 events every year until 2020, according to a report by Daily Trust.
However, fewer collapses were recorded in 2020, while two were recorded in 2021, being the lowest in the years under review, the newspaper said.
The trend has dramatically changed in 2022, as three collapsed have been recorded already in less than a month, between March 14 and April 8.
The power shutdowns which has now become a recurring decimal in the sector, has triggered a blame game between NERC, TCN, GenCos and DisCos.
On the other hand, Minister of Power, Engr Abubakar D. Aliyu, has severally said his ministry is working round the clock with relevant stakeholders to stabilize power, expand transmission infrastructure and inject adequate funds into the sector.
The minister said he has undertaken concrete steps towards the restoration of normal supply of electricity supply nationwide and the development of a framework for sustainable improvement of supply.
