By Mary Izuaka

 

Vice President Kashim Shettima on Wednesday performed the groundbreaking ceremony of a new ultra-modern National Control Centre for the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) in Osogbo, Osun State.

The federal government said the facility will replace a 64-year-old centre that no longer meets the demands of running Nigeria’s national grid.

Mr Shettima, who was supported at the ceremony by the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said reliable electricity is central to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

The vice president was represented by the Special Adviser (Legal) in the Office of the Vice President, Bashir Maidugu, according to a statement by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Mr Tegbe, Adeola Labzy, on Wednesday.

Mr Shettima described power as the foundation of an economy that works, enabling manufacturers to plan production, small businesses to operate with confidence and hospitals and schools to function, as well as creating jobs and wider economic opportunity.

The National Control Centre, he said, is where that reliability is protected, and Nigeria cannot run a modern, interconnected grid with the tools of yesterday.

Giving an overview of the project, Mr Tegbe said it gives NISO the ability to see what is happening across the national grid and respond promptly.

He described it as a concrete expression of the President’s determination to fix the underlying weaknesses in electricity supply.

Mr Tegbe said once commissioned, the centre will be equipped with integrated SCADA systems, large-format displays and analytics to help operators detect developing faults, plan preventive maintenance and optimise existing generation and transmission capacity.

“It will also improve responses to disturbances, support the integration of renewable energy and strengthen Nigeria’s coordination within the West African Power Pool, backed by stronger physical and cyber security.”

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He said for consumers and businesses, the expected benefit is fewer avoidable outages and more dependable supply, but cautioned that this also depends on adequate gas feedstock, well-maintained transmission equipment and distribution networks that can deliver power to end users.

He added that the centre will strengthen the coordination that turns those investments into usable electricity.

Also speaking, NISO Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Abdu Mohammed, said the centre will improve NISO’s visibility of the national grid, sharpen coordination and support faster, better-informed responses to system disturbances, strengthening the security and resilience of supply.

He said better data from upgraded telemetry, SCADA and automatic metering will mean better decisions and more reliable electricity, and will improve market settlement.

He noted that the new centre will equip NISO to meet the technical demands of the West African power system, and added that NISO is building the skilled operators to run it to international standards, because technology does not operate the grid; people do.