The Federal Government has apologised over the recent collapse of the national grid which caused power outages for several days in 17 states in the region.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, gave the apology on Thursday during a courtesy visit to Gov. Abba Yusuf of Kano State, describing the situation as “very unfortunate.”
Adelabu said the Federal Government was overhauling the national grid to reduce the frequent disturbances in the system and improve power supply across the country.
He said the national grid was over 50 years old, with components that were weak, obsolete and dilapidated, including the lines and substations, with old transformers.
Adelabu said most of the towers installed on the system a long time ago were failing due to the effects of weather and climate change, adding that they need continuous maintenance.
The minister said: “This grid requires a lot of money to maintain.
”So, what we have now, we will continue to manage it and prevent frequent disturbances until we are able to overhaul this infrastructure 100 percent. ‘’
Adelabu said the Federal Government was revamping the entire grid structure as various programmes were being put in place to ensure that old infrastructure was replaced.
He listed the programmes to include: the Presidential Power Initiative, PPI, known as the Siemens project, which is currently ongoing.
According to him, there is also the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN’s expansion programme supported by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, AfDB.