Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has declared that the state is no longer affected by frequent collapses of Nigeria’s national electricity grid, following investments in alternative energy sources and the takeover of power regulation within the state.
The governor made the declaration on Thursday while addressing journalists at the Government House, Umuahia, amid renewed nationwide power outages triggered by another collapse of the national grid.
Otti explained that Abia has begun converting organic waste into electricity through biogas technology, providing renewable energy that now supports parts of the state’s power supply system.
According to him, the development has reduced the state’s dependence on the national grid and placed Abia on a path toward electricity independence.
He further disclosed that the Abia State Electricity Regulatory Authority officially assumed regulatory control of power generation, transmission, and distribution from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on December 24.
Otti said the arrangement was negotiated and accepted by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, which currently oversees electricity distribution in the state.
“This is a pilot programme. Instead of throwing away waste, we are converting it into clean energy that can power many areas, especially the Umuahia industrial zones,” the governor said.
“Our offers to EEDC have been accepted, and we are already in the process of raising funds to pay off the company. From December 24, power regulation in Abia moved fully to the state level.”
He noted that the initiative mirrors the Aba Power model, which independently supplies electricity to Aba industrial clusters.
Otti added that recent national grid collapses did not affect Abia because a significant portion of the state’s power assets now operate under state authority.
“That is the whole idea behind acquiring the entire Umuahia industrial power assets. We are making steady progress, and the results are already evident,” he said.
The governor’s comments followed the latest collapse of the national grid on Tuesday, the second recorded in 2026, which plunged many parts of the country into darkness.
Electricity generation reportedly dropped from over 4,500 megawatts to zero, with all 23 power generation plants connected to the grid losing output and no electricity allocated to the 11 distribution companies nationwide.
The recurring grid failures have drawn criticism from political leaders and energy experts.
Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, described the repeated collapses as a national crisis, lamenting Nigeria’s low electricity generation compared to other African countries.
Obi noted that Nigeria, with over 240 million people, generates only about 5,000 megawatts, far below the output of countries such as South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria National Grid has identified metering, grid expansion, improved transmission capacity, and stronger regulation as long-term solutions to the persistent system failures.
Experts have also warned that Nigeria requires more than 30,000 megawatts of electricity to meet the needs of its growing population and economy.
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