By: OrePulse

Nigeria's Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said electricity supply to Lagos, Abuja, Kwara and other affected areas should improve within 48 to 72 hours, as authorities work to restore the first set of affected generating units in phases.

Tegbe said the current supply shortfall was due to planned maintenance work at the Egbin Power Station, one of the country's largest thermal plants, combined with gas supply constraints affecting some other thermal generating stations. He said grid operators had introduced load shedding in some areas as a result.

The minister also said that sabotage of key transmission lines had limited alternative routes for supplying electricity to Lagos in particular, a claim that has not been independently verified. He did not provide further details on the nature or location of the alleged sabotage, or say whether any investigation into the matter was underway.

Tegbe acknowledged the hardship the outages have caused households and businesses, including in Lagos State and the Federal Capital Territory, and said the ministry was working with grid and generation operators to address gas supply issues and to speed up repairs to the affected transmission infrastructure.

Residents in the affected areas have expressed frustration over the outages on social media, with some directing criticism at the minister over the handling of the power shortfall. Nigeria's electricity grid has experienced repeated periods of instability in recent years, with outages frequently linked to a combination of gas supply shortages, plant maintenance schedules and aging transmission infrastructure.

Egbin Power Station, located near Lagos, is one of Nigeria's largest thermal generating facilities and supplies a significant share of electricity to the Lagos metropolitan area. Maintenance outages at large thermal stations such as Egbin can have an outsized effect on supply to nearby population centers when alternative transmission routes are limited, a dynamic the minister pointed to in explaining the current disruption.

Nigeria's power sector has for years struggled with a mismatch between installed generation capacity and the amount of electricity that can reliably reach consumers, due in part to gas supply constraints affecting thermal plants that make up the bulk of the country's generation fleet, as well as limitations in the transmission network connecting generating stations to population centers. The latest outages add to a long record of supply disruptions that have drawn public frustration and periodic government pledges to improve service.

It remains to be seen whether the restoration timeline given by the minister will hold, given the multiple factors cited as contributing to the current shortfall, including the ongoing Egbin maintenance work, gas supply constraints and the reported transmission line issues. The ministry said it would provide further updates on restoration progress as repair and maintenance work continues at the affected plants and transmission lines.