Tegbe pledges power supply recovery within 72 hours as grid maintenance disrupts service
Nigeria's Power Minister Joseph Tegbe says electricity supply will stabilize within 48-72 hours as the government addresses generation and transmission constraints affecting multiple states.
Joseph Tegbe, Nigeria's Minister of Power, has indicated that electricity supply throughout the nation should stabilize within 48 to 72 hours. Recent blackouts impacting homes and commercial establishments stem from multiple concurrent issues: scheduled maintenance at key generation sites, gas supply limitations affecting thermal power stations, and infrastructure damage affecting transmission networks.
Lagos hosts Egbin Power Station, the country's premier thermal electricity facility, which is currently undergoing planned maintenance work. This station ordinarily contributes approximately 16% of electricity to the national grid.
During this maintenance period, the facility's unavailability has created a notable gap in power supply. To cope with this reduced capacity, grid operators have implemented scheduled load shedding across impacted zones.
According to the minister's Friday statement, the blackouts have disrupted at least four states, with the Federal Capital Territory among those affected. Beyond the scheduled maintenance activities, two additional obstacles have worsened the crisis: insufficient gas reaching certain thermal plants and deliberate attacks on essential transmission corridors.
These combined challenges have strained both generation capacity and distribution infrastructure. Currently, the Federal Government is tackling both immediate supply gaps and longer-term infrastructure vulnerabilities.
The minister's projection of recovery within 48 to 72 hours reflects anticipated completion of maintenance cycles and restoration of adequate gas deliveries to power facilities. During this restoration phase, grid operators maintain demand management using load shedding techniques until supply capacity returns to standard levels.
