FG overhauling national grid to improve power supply: Minister
The federal government says it is overhauling the national grid to reduce the frequent disturbances and improve power supply across the country.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, said this in Abuja on Tuesday at a media briefing.
Mr Adelabu said the national grid was over 50 years old and had weak, obsolete, and dilapidated components, including the lines and sub-stations with old transformers.
He said most towers installed a long time ago were falling due to the effect of weather and climate changes, adding that they need continuous maintenance.
“This grid requires a lot of money to maintain in order to ensure adequate and regular maintenance,” said Mr Adelabu. “So, what we have now, we will continue to manage it and prevent frequent disturbances until we are able to overhaul this infrastructure a 100 per cent.‘’
Mr Adelabu said the federal government was not quiet about revamping the entire grid structure as various programmes were implemented to ensure that old infrastructure were replaced.
He listed the programmes to include the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), known as the Siemens project, which is currently ongoing, and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s expansion programme, supported by the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB).
According to him, the pilot phase of the Siemens project has just been concluded, which involved importing 10 power transformers and 10 power mobile sub-stations.
He said phase one of the Siemens project would soon commence, after which the grid performance would be better than what was being experienced presently.
The minister said the improvement witnessed in the power sector was not accidental, adding that many old power transformers were replaced by new ones.
“ We have also installed and commissioned all the mobile sub-stations where they are needed, and that is what contributed to stability being witnessed,‘’ he said.
The minister also appealed to Nigerians to protect power infrastructure, adding that they cost much money.
He said that vandalism of the infrastructure was causing hardship on Nigerians.
(NAN)
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