The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said that the frequent collapse of Nigeria’s national power grid is nearly unavoidable due to the poor condition of the country’s power infrastructure.

Speaking on Wednesday during the inauguration of Hexing Livoltek, a new electricity meter manufacturing company in Lekki, Lagos, Adelabu stressed the need for regional power grids to mitigate the impact of grid failures.

He noted that decentralising the power sector by establishing multiple power grids in different regions would help prevent widespread blackouts in the event of a single grid collapse.

“This Electricity Act, signed by President Tinubu in 2023, has decentralised the power sector,” he explained. “It allows state and local governments to participate in power generation, transmission, and distribution. Currently, we rely on a single national grid, so if there’s a disruption, all 36 states are affected. This shouldn’t be the case.”

Adelabu continued, “By having independent grids in each region or state, we can limit the impact of grid failures. If a regional grid collapses, it would only affect the states within that region, rather than causing nationwide outages.”

The decentralisation of the power sector, made possible by the new Electricity Act, aims to improve grid stability and resilience, ensuring a more reliable supply of electricity across the country.