Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, announced on Monday that electricity would soon be restored to the 17 northern states experiencing blackouts due to the vandalism of the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line.
Adelabu shared this update while briefing reporters at the State House following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.
He explained that the power outage in northern Nigeria resulted from the damage to the Shiroro-Kaduna line, a key transmission route supplying electricity to the region.
However, Adelabu assured that repairs on the transmission line would be completed within three to five days.
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“Mr President has instructed the National Security Adviser (NSA), the chief of defense staff, the chief of Army staff, Chief of Air Staff, to provide the required security for the people that will fix the demolished line.
“With the provision of full security, the TCN staff will have the confidence, together with the contractors, to go to the field and fix it.
“So, I’m just appealing to our northern brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, to bear with us that very soon, light will be restored, and we must all collectively protect our national grid to avoid further vandalisation,” said the minister.
He noted that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had previously approved the Ministry of Power’s plan to upgrade the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line, one of Nigeria’s oldest.
Once this upgrade is completed, he said, northern regions would experience more stable electricity than the current situation.
He also pledged to hold a meeting with the chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and all Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to ensure that customers in the north would not be billed for periods during which they experienced power outages.
Mr. Adelabu further explained that the national grid recently collapsed twice due to a transformer explosion at the Jebba plant, noting that prior to this, the last disruption in the grid occurred about four months ago.
“Let me tell you the truth of the matter is we have old infrastructure. We have a national grid that is more than 50 years old.
“We have national grid whose transmission lines are weak, the towers are falling, and the substations, the transformers are old.
“In fact, the transformer that actually exploded in Jeba was 47 years old. We’ve been trying to revamp this, to change them, but they cannot all be changed overnight,” he said.
He stated that the ministry would keep managing the grid to prevent frequent disruptions until a complete overhaul is achieved.
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