By Sandra Kenneth
In a major move to permanently resolve Nigeria’s chronic power grid collapses, the Federal Government has approved plans to construct a new Eastern-Western electricity grid.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this development while speaking at the recent HBSAN energy conference in Lagos, where he outlined comprehensive strategies to overhaul the country’s aging electricity transmission architecture. According to the minister, procurement processes for the grid projects have already commenced, with tangible benefits expected to manifest for Nigerians within the next two to three years.
Clustering Energy Zones and Targeted Audits
Minister Tegbe explained that the government has strategically clustered the country into three distinct energy zones to optimize operational efficiency. He noted that addressing the Lagos and Abuja corridors alone resolves over half of Nigeria’s power distribution challenges, though infrastructural expansion remains necessary.
To ensure resources are allocated effectively, the government has launched a nationwide technical audit to diagnose root causes rather than treating superficial faults.
“We have started a technical audit across the entire country to say where do we have issues, and what issues specifically do we have. I don’t want to fix transformer issues where I have conductor and relay problems. I don’t want to fix insulators where the challenges I actually have are towers. So, we will finish that technical audit in the next couple of weeks. When we finish it, we then target our prioritised areas,” Tegbe stated.
Decades-Old Infrastructure Blamed
Addressing the underlying causes of frequent transmission failures, the Minister pointed to severely outdated infrastructure inherited from previous decades. He revealed that site inspections uncovered transmission towers and lines dating back to the era of the Electricity Company of Nigeria (ECN), which predated the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
Despite inheriting a 50-year-old backlog of infrastructural decay, the current administration has committed to systemic reforms and technical upgrades to stabilize the national grid and guarantee reliable power supply across the country.
