Power minister promises relief in 48–72 hours as blackouts bite Lagos, FCT

Households and businesses hit by long blackouts in Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and two other states may get relief within two to three days, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has said.

In a statement titled 'Update on Power Situation', Tegbe said the first of the affected generating units would be back on the grid within 48 to 72 hours. Punch reported that he posted it on his Facebook page on Friday; Nairametrics said it was shared with the outlet on Saturday.

He said the shortfall on the national grid followed planned maintenance at the Egbin Power Station in Lagos, which he described as the country's largest thermal plant and the source of about 16 per cent of electricity fed into the grid.

Gas supply problems at some thermal stations and reduced output from hydro plants have also cut the power available, he said. Grid operators responded by shedding load in some areas.

Tegbe also said deliberate damage to key transmission lines had blocked alternative routes for moving power to some places, especially Lagos.

"I am aware of the strain that the current outages have placed on households and businesses," he said, adding that his team was working to bring units back in phases, improve gas supply and speed up repairs.

Why it matters

For many Nigerians, the outage means hotter nights without fans or air conditioning, food spoiling in fridges and small businesses paying more for generators and fuel. Residents of Lagos and Ogun have complained that the heat has made the blackouts harder to bear.

Band A customers pay a higher tariff in exchange for at least 20 hours of supply a day. Ikeja Electric has already apologised to some of them after falling short of that promise on November 3 and 4.

Dispute over the cause

The crisis has set the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) against Ikeja Electric over what went wrong.

Ikeja Electric had blamed grid instability for the November 3 and 4 outages. TCN rejected that account on Friday, saying gas shortages and lower hydro generation were the real cause.

"TCN can only transmit the energy made available to it and cannot transmit energy that is not generated," the company said.

TCN said the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) had not traced the interruptions to a failure of its network. It said 68 per cent of the interruptions on feeders serving Ikeja Electric came from load shedding used to control frequency when generation is low.

Another 26 per cent, TCN said, came from Ikeja Electric's alleged failure to follow load allocations, plus faults and maintenance on its own network. The remaining six per cent was down to TCN's planned maintenance, switching or line limits.

Tegbe said the federal government was working with TCN, NISO and the distribution companies to fix the constraints.

What happens next: Watch whether the first units return within the 48 to 72 hours he promised. If they do, supply should ease in the affected states; if not, the blame game between TCN and Ikeja Electric is likely to continue.