Uche Cecil Izuora
Electricity consumers in Nigeria’s Southeast geopolitical zone have advised the Federal Government to create a second transmission network to grapple with the problem of constant collapse of the national grid.
Responding to the nationwide collapse of the transmission network on Wednesday (September 10), the Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in the five southeastern states revealed that the nine local government areas (LGAs) served by Aba Power in Abia State were not affected by the national blackout.
“The people in the nine LGAs that make up the Aba Ring-fenced Area were not affected by the awful national experience”, the consumers said in a statement issued by the ECAN chairman in the southeast, Engr Joe Ubani, and the secretary, Comrade Chris Okpara.
“The Aba Ring-fenced Area does not depend on the national grid because it receives power from the 188MW Geometric Power Plant in the Osisioma Industrial Zone of Aba”.
Aba Power Electric Ltd is a subsidiary of the Geometric Power group.
ECAN explained that, unlike other electricity distribution companies in Nigeria, Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12th DisCo, obtains supplies from the national grid only when there are issues like natural gas shortages from its supplier.
The association stated: “This shows that while Aba Power uses the national transmission network as a backup, the 11 legacy DisCos depend entirely on it, despite its serious problems of old age, poor maintenance, fragility, and limited capacity”.
Recalling that when he was the Minister of Power in 2012 that Professor Bart Nnaji, the Geometric Power group founder and chairman, started to build a 756KV grid to serve as a second transmission network, ECAN said that the project which the Federal Executive Council had approved was abandoned after Nnaji resigned in protest against the manner the Power Holding of Nigeria (PHCN) assets were being privatized.
The consumers praised the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, for considering reviving the project.
“A situation where the whole nation was on Wednesday plunged into darkness except the Aba Ring-fenced Area”, ECAN noted, “underlines the imperative of an alternative grid.
“A second transmission network will make for energy security and national economic progress, as Professor Nnaji has been arguing”.
Wednesday’s grid collapse was the first time Nigeria was experiencing a nationwide power failure this year, though it recorded 12 failures in 2024.
Causes of the grid collapse range from tall iroko trees touching the transmission network in places like Ondo and Ondo states to a fault in any of the networked power plants to old age and poor maintenance.