The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu stated that Nigeria is set to add 150 megawatts to its national grid by the end of 2024.
This addition is part of the efforts stemming from the successful completion of the pilot phase of the Presidential Power Initiative, PPI.
Adelabu made this announcement during a briefing with State House Correspondents after meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.
“We have completed the pilot phase of this project, up to 80%. This involves the importation, installation, and commissioning of 10 power transformers and 10 powermobile substations.
“They’ve been imported. They’ve been installed, and lots of them have been commissioned. We have just about two left to be commissioned before the end of the year,” the minister explained.
The impact of the successful completion of this phase has already been felt, with the addition of 750 MW to Nigeria’s transmission grid capacity.
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Adelabu emphasized that the ongoing improvements were a key factor in the recent relative stability of the national grid.
“The positive impact of this is that it has added nothing less than 750 megawatts to our transmission grid capacity, which is why the relative stability that we are seeing in the grid today is the direct positive impact of the pilot stage completion,” he said.
However, the minister’s statement came amidst growing concerns over the state of the national grid, which had collapsed for the 12th time that year, leaving millions without power.
Experts have pointed to aging infrastructure as a major cause of these frequent collapses. Despite this, Adelabu reassured Nigerians that the situation would improve significantly in the future.
“We need to revamp the entire grid for us to be sure of stability going forward,” he stated, acknowledging the fragility of the existing system.
“When we are done with the Phase One project in the transmission, the entire grid will not remain the same. It’s quite fragile and it’s dilapidating,” he added.
As Nigeria works toward completing the full pilot phase of the PPI, Adelabu’s comments reflect an optimistic outlook for the country’s power sector, signaling that improvements are on the way despite the challenges posed by the current infrastructure.
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