The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Power to investigate the cause of the frequent collapse of the national electricity grid.
This resolution was a sequel to a motion of matter of urgent public importance moved by Sani Bala (APC, Kano) on Tuesday during plenary.
Moving the motion, Mr Bala informed his colleagues that the grid has collapsed about seven times in the past nine months and over 100 times between 2013 and now.
He stated that the recent shutdown has been one of the worst in recent history, warning that there may be no end in sight according to experts.
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“Since 2013 when the privatisation exercise took place in the power sector, the country has witnessed over a hundred national grid collapses; a challenge which experts and operators said would linger for a long time if not addressed.
“Only this year, the national grid has collapsed seven times (more than the three times recorded last year), thereby, causing national power outages with enormous socio-economic implications,” he said.
Mr Bala said the lack of spinning reserve could partly be blamed for the collapses. He added that it is incomprehensible that all the key power plants in the country, including Egbin, Utorogu, Chevron Oredo, Oben gas-fired power plants, Ughelli, and Chevron Escravos power plants could all shut down at once.
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“System collapse may not be unconnected with the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s lack of wheeling capacity, inadequate transmission lines and spinning reserves as well as refusal to fast-track construction of digital control centres instead of the Company’s current analogue system,” Mr Bala stated in his motion.
Speaking in support of the motion, the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, said the current administration is yet to add to the existing capacity since 2015.
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“We are talking about unemployment, how can we address that without steady power?” Mr Okechukwu said.
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At the end of the debate, the House mandated the power committee to conduct an investigation into the root causes of incessant collapses and to address the ugly trend to forestall future occurrences.
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