Minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, on Monday, said that power generation in the country increased by about 30 per cent in 2024.

Mr Adelabu made the disclosure during his ministry’s 2025 budget defence before the Senate committee on power at the National Assembly complex.

He said that when he assumed the leadership of the ministry in 2023, he met an average of 4,100 megawatts of power generation.

“I can tell you authoritatively that by the end of 2024, we had a peak generation of 5,528 megawatts of power from 4,100 megawatts that we met on ground.

“And the reason for this is not far-fetched. We added a new hydroelectric power dam, Zungeru, with 700 megawatts.

“There was also a tremendous increase in the generation lines by other existing generation companies,” he said.

The minister said that the target for power generation was 6,000 megawatts, adding, however, that due to the challenges experienced toward the end of 2024 in terms of grid collapses, the ministry missed the target by minimal margin.

He further said that apart from energy access expansion, the sector had plans to stabilise the grid and other transmission infrastructure.

“I’m happy to also inform you that out of the eight collapses of the national grid that we experienced during 2024, five were full collapses, while three were partial collapses.

“Out of the five full collapses, three were actually due to generation problems. So, as against the 12 collapses that were publicised, it was just about eight collapses.

“We have been trying very hard to ensure that we manage the grid that was inherited.

“Unfortunately, it is still very old. It is dilapidated. And we are just managing it until we are able to fix it permanently.

“This is the focus of the Presidential Power Initiative, to ensure that the entire grid is revamped so that we won’t be having all this vandalism.

“So these are the summaries of our activities. And we are proud to say that we almost met all our targets for 2024.

“Our hope is that 2025 will be a better year for us, and we will be able to address all the existing issues in the sector,” he said.

In his remarks, chairman of the Senate committee on power, Sen. Eyinnaya Abaribe, questioned the government’s continuous funding of power distribution companies (discos), suggesting a review of their contracts and possible government reclamation if the inefficiencies persisted.

The committee asked the minister to return at a later date with all discos to discuss contract performance and obligations.

(NAN)