Senate queries incessant grid collapse

Senate queries incessant grid collapse

The Senate Committee on Power waded into the Incessant electricity grid collapses which have become all frequent in Nigeria’s power sector. The Chairman, Senate Committee on power, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who led members of the Committee to the Ministry of Power for an oversight visit to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), expressed concerns regarding incessant grid collapse in the country.

Kinggram reports that Senator Abaribe said the oversight visit became necessary to find out the challenges that have led to poor supply of electricity to Nigerians and also the reasons for the consistent collapses of the national grid.

Abaribe disclosed that come 29th April 2024, the Committee would convene an investigative hearing into the issue of tariff hike without relevant stakeholders in the sector.

He lamented that some other countries of Africa are making a joke of Nigeria as a generator country, where no one can do anything without having a private generator which is not acceptable.

Responding, Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, the Managing Director of TCN, listed the causes of grid collapses to include vandalization, funding and the absence of SCADA, an acronym for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition; a computer-based system for gathering and analyzing real-time data to monitor and control equipment that deals with critical and time-sensitive materials or events.

Also, the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, gave insights into the way these challenges is hindering effective operations and stability in the sector. He identified funding as a major problem in the sector stressing that some 120 TCN projects have been stalled for over 20 years because of lack of funding.