The Federal Government has set January 2027 as its target to commence the replacement of ageing infrastructure across the national electricity grid as part of efforts to improve power supply.

Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this on Monday during an interview on a TVC television programme.

He said the exercise would begin within the next one to two months, following a technical audit of the power sector to identify facilities and equipment requiring repairs or replacement.

“So in the next one or two months, we will commence infrastructure replacement across our grid. President Tinubu is extremely supportive of what we are doing,” he said.

Tegbe identified transmission as the biggest constraint in the power sector, noting that some of the country’s transmission lines had been in operation for as long as 50 years.

He said the ministry had been conducting a comprehensive technical audit to determine the condition of existing infrastructure and ensure that available funds were directed towards the most critical areas.

“I’m a systems person. So do a technical audit of the entire power sector. And today, we’ve gone about one month into the technical audit. We’ve seen some of the results,” he said.

According to him, preliminary findings have revealed faults in different components of the transmission infrastructure, including towers, insulators, conductor relays and other equipment.

“There are places where it is towers that have issues. There are places where it’s insulators. There are places where it’s a conductor relay.

“What you don’t want to do is start spending money on insulators when you are meant to fix a conductor relay. Now we’re getting a clear picture,” he said.

Gas supply constraints limiting electricity generation

The minister also said Nigeria had sufficient natural gas reserves to generate electricity but faced challenges within the gas supply chain, including outstanding debts owed to electricity generation companies (GenCos).

On November 5, the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) attributed the decline in electricity generation partly to limited gas availability and reduced water inflows into hydroelectric power stations.

However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, on November 7, said its gas transportation network had no operational constraints responsible for the recent decline in power generation.

Reacting to the differing positions, Tegbe said his priority was to ensure improved electricity supply to Nigerians, urging relevant agencies to work together rather than engage in disagreements over the causes of the challenges.

He maintained that Nigeria had sufficient gas reserves but acknowledged that financial and operational constraints within the supply chain were affecting its availability to power plants.

“We have gas as a nation. However, sometimes, that liquidity issue becomes a constraint,” he said.

“There’s availability of gas for us as a nation. It’s a comparative advantage. However, within the gas supply chain, there are constraints,” he added.

Tegbe identified the inability of some generating companies to pay for gas, partly due to outstanding debts owed to them, as one of the major challenges.

He put the outstanding obligations at N3.3 trillion, saying the Federal Government had commenced payments to reduce the debt burden.

According to him, N1.23 trillion has been paid in recent months, leaving approximately N2 trillion outstanding, which the government hopes to address next year.

“In the last few months, we’ve paid down N1.23 trillion. We only have N2 trillion left. That N2 trillion, hopefully next year,” he said.

The minister also identified the ageing of some electricity generation plants as another factor affecting power supply, adding that the government was replacing some of the obsolete facilities with newer ones.

He said addressing the challenges in the gas supply chain, upgrading transmission infrastructure and improving generation capacity would strengthen the country’s electricity supply.

FG begins national grid overhaul in January 2027

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