A blackout persisted in most states Tuesday with Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) restating reasons for the development.
Consumers who spoke to our correspondents lamented that the situation has been worse since January than it was last year.
“In February, my area had an average of four to five hours of power supply daily, but since last month, I have deliberately decided not to think about electricity because some days it is zero,” said Catherine Odeyingbo, a major frozen food seller in Ikeja, Lagos.
Another resident, who produces sachet water in Ibeju-Lekki, Goriola Olusanya, said the cost of running his business had become unbearable due to the non-availability of electricity.
“I cannot imagine how I will continue to buy diesel at such an expensive rate to do my business.
“The generator is supposed to be a backup energy source. Today, it has become the mainstay because the DisCo cannot deliver on its mandate,” Olusanya said.
Many homes across the country are suffering from incessant power cuts or no electricity at all for days.
Yet, the weather has been extremely hot.
Most industrial clusters in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, and other major cities that enjoy preferential power supply have also witnessed severely low supply.
The frequent collapse of the national grid has further compounded the power crisis.
A Federal Capital Territory resident, James Okon, said: “The reforms in the power sector have taken us nowhere. I think we are worse off today.
“The situation is not helped by the heat wave we are experiencing day and night.”
But most of the 11 DisCos apologised, saying many factors, especially low generation and weak transmission, were responsible.
Other DisCos attributed the blackouts to vandalism, debts, and programmed upgrades of electric facilities.
The federal government said it was addressing the causes of problems in the sector.
Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu assured that the situation would soon be over as the root causes of problems were being tackled.
He appealed to electricity consumers nationwide to exercise patience.
A Chief Executive Officer of one of the DisCos, who asked not to be named, said one of the surest ways to guarantee regular supply was for the Federal Government to improve the weak wheeling capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) through investment.
The TCN said last weekend that after it restored the collapsed national grid on Friday, some DisCos were unable to evacuate their allocations.
Early Tuesday, total generation stood at 4,000MW but it dropped to 3,417MW as of 4.43 pm.
TCN Public Affairs, General Manager, Ndidi Mbah, said: “Total Generation is around 4,000 MW, not 5,508 MW.”
Mbah explained that since DisCos cover specific franchise areas, it was their duty to ensure that electricity got to their customers there.
“TCN does not distribute electricity,” she said, urging our reporter to “call the distribution companies covering the specific areas that you know for sure have outage issues.”.
She added: “I say this because local distribution faults are not the responsibility of TCN.
“It is only when they tell you that we are at fault that we (TCN) can come in by reaching out to the substation in the area to find out what went wrong.
“But you must note that while total grid collapse puts the entire nation in the dark, partial grid collapse affects a section of the country.
“After the last national grid collapse (the fourth this year), the entire grid was fully recovered the same day.”
As of 4:43pm when power dipped to 3,417MW, AEDC received 611MW while EEDC’s allocation, which was 1,026MW when the total generation stood at 4,000MW, dropped significantly to only 513MW.
Total energy generated by TCN as of Sunday was 96,131.84MWh, an average of 4,005.4MW, while the total energy sent out to the DisCos was 94,991.10MWh, an average of 3,957.96MW.
Why outages persist, by DisCos
Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), Ikeja Electric (IE), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC) said the causes of the outages were beyond them.
EKEDC, which apologised to its customers for “the inconvenience,” said low allocations from the national grid was responsible.
It attributed the low allocation from the TCN to gas shortages to the generating companies (GenCos).
“Kindly be informed that the present reduction in power supply across our network is due to gas shortages and other related issues arising from the generating companies.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has caused, even as we work with our partners for a speedy resolution.
“We are constantly communicating with our partners to ensure this is resolved as soon as possible,” the company said in a post on its social media handles.
IE said in a circular that the outage in some parts of its franchise area in Lagos was due to load restrictions of its various transmission centres.
It, however, revealed that it was working in collaboration with other key stakeholders to restore normal service to its consumers.
IE said: “The current service disruption you are encountering is a result of significant load restrictions across many of our transmission load centres, particularly impacting Oworo TS, Maryland TS, Itire TS, Isolo TS, Ogba TS, Alausa TS, Ejigbo TS, Alimosho TS, Ilupeju TS, Ayobo TS.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We are actively collaborating with relevant stakeholders to restore normal operations.”
IBEDC said low gas supply significantly reduced power available at the national grid and consequently its ability to provide power to its customers in Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and partly in Kogi, Niger and Ekiti states.
It added that scheduled maintenance activities conducted by TCN in January and March necessitated planned outages in some areas in its network.
The DisCo added that vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure remained major issues negatively impacting power supply.
It also said that payment apathy by customers was a challenge to adequate supply of power.
“Our customer segments have different mindsets that electricity is a social service and should not be paid for; some only pay part of their bills, while others don’t pay because they haven’t received their preferred hours of supply,” the company added.
KEDC Head of Corporate Communication, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, said the company was not unaware of the complaints by communities in its franchise areas.
“We empathise with the situation, but we must note that the issue is rooted in the drastic drop in power generation nationwide which has adversely affected what is supplied to Kaduna Electric for onward distribution to our customers,” said Abdullahi.
“It is certainly not our fault. The low level of generation has hindered us from fully satisfying our customers.
“Therefore, we are fully engaging our customers and all stakeholders at all levels to provide updates as to the reduction in hours of supply to our customers.”
Also, EEDC said that any effort it makes to improve energy supply to its customers would amount to nothing if the quantum of daily megawatt hour (MWH) of energy allocated to them is not increased.
Its spokesman, Emeka Ezeh, said: “Poor power supply currently experienced by our customers across the Southeast network is beyond us. It is down to the drop in power allocation given to us.
“It’s a very big challenge because our customers are not happy. They’re blaming us. “This allocation is no longer sufficient to address the needs of our customers.”
The JEDC said power supply to its four franchise states of Benue, Bauchi, Gombe and Plateau depends on what is supplied to it by the TCN.
The firm’s spokesman, Friday Elijah, said: “Our distribution depends on what is supplied to us.
“If you go to our website or our social media, we publish our allocation daily to let people know the quantity of energy we get because energy is not storable material that can be kept for future use.
“If there are no faults, especially from transmission, we distribute them accordingly and that is what we’ve been doing.”
Kwara appeals to IBEDC
The Kwara Government appealed to the IBEDC to improve supply.
Water Resources Commissioner Usman Yunusa-Lade made the appeal at a meeting with the Regional Head and Management of the distribution company in Ilorin.
Yunusa-Lade said the purpose of the meeting was to inform IBEDC of how its service had affected the normal pumping of water by the state water corporation.
“Without power supply, we cannot operate at a maximal level even when our facilities are intact.
“However, we need to understand your challenges and at the same time, we need to improve the service we render to the public,” he said.
Regional Head of IBEDC Oluwatoyin Akinyosoye, informed the commissioner that the epileptic power supply was a national issue.
Akinyosoye explained that the megawatt allocated to the state had dropped drastically, which informed the rationalisation of power supply.
‘Improve TCN facilities’
One of the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of the DisCos absolved the TCN of blame and urged the government to improve the weak wheeling capacity of the transmission firm through improved investment.
“It is not the fault of the TCN. The government too needs to invest to improve the service that the TCN delivers,” said the CEO, who added that the DisCos are working with the relevant stakeholders to change the narrative.
He also explained that most of the DisCos cannot evacuate the load they nominate at a particular time because of fear of “trip off of the system.”
He assured that since the DisCos are working in consonance with the TCN, there will be some improvement in the next three months.
We’re addressing the problems, says minister
Adelabu, after meeting with some All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders at the Oyo state APC secretariat in Ibadan, said the problems were being addressed.
He added: “I want to reassure Nigerians that the government of President Bola Tinubu is ready and determined to change the face of things in the power sector, to change the game in the power sector, which is why we are addressing the root causes of the power sector problems.
“We are addressing all the problems associated with all the segments of the power sector value chain, from gas supply to generation to transmission, to distribution and to the customers themselves.
“There are a lot of things that we are doing that Nigerians will soon start seeing.”
He also said that N75 billion had been committed to the Presidential Metering Initiative to bridge the metering gap.
NERC sets deadline
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) announced a new regulation requiring all DisCos to procure at least 10 per cent of their contracted energy from embedded generation sources, with half coming from renewable sources.
The regulator set an April 1, 2025 deadline.
Under this mandate, each DisCo is required to procure a specified amount of energy from embedded generation sources, with a portion mandated to be sourced from renewable energy.
For instance, the Abuja Disco is expected to procure at least 61.1MW from embedded generation sources, out of which 31MW must be sourced from renewable energy sources.
On March 11, the Federal Government ordered the NERC to withdraw licenses of non-performing electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
Adelabu, who gave the order, said: “It is true that the distribution companies are in the hands of the private sector. We don’t have direct control.
“But we need to compel them for performance. They must perform. If they do not perform, all our effort in generation and transmission is zero.”
> Reports by Adebisi Aikulola, Akinade Feyisipo,Kenneth Ibinabo and Usman Abdullah
