Nigeria’s national grid suffered a shortfall of 4,091 megawatt-hours per hour (MWh/h) in September, despite years of heavy investment in the power sector.
This was contained in the September 2025 Operational Performance Factsheet released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Thursday.
According to the report, plant availability remains alarmingly low.
The commission said, “Plant Availability Factor (PAF) stood at 38 percent, an average of 5,200 MW was available for dispatch out of 13,625 MW installed capacity. Average Load Factor, however, stood at 78 percent, indicating that 4,091 MWh/h of available generation capacity was utilised.”
The report named Zungeru, Egbin, Kainji, and Jebba as the top-performing plants contributing the most to energy supply in the period under review.
Amidst the performance concerns, the Federal Government has finalised an implementation framework for the Presidential Power Sector Debt Reduction Plan.
The scheme, approved by President Bola Tinubu and endorsed by the Federal Executive Council in August, authorises the issuance of ₦4 trillion in government-backed bonds to offset verified arrears owed to generation companies and gas suppliers.
The move, the government says, is aimed at restoring financial stability and investor confidence in the struggling electricity market.
Reacting to the move, Chairman of Heirs Holdings and Transcorp Power, Tony Elumelu, described the plan as a long-overdue measure.
Elumelu said, “This intervention, addresses a legacy debt overhang that has constrained investment, weakened utility balance sheets, and hindered reliable power delivery across the country.
“For the first time in years, we are seeing a credible and systematic effort by government to tackle the root liquidity challenges in the power sector. We commend President Tinubu and his economic team for this bold and transformative step.”
Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, also emphasised that the reforms are designed to reset the sector on a sustainable path.
She said, “Our focus is on creating the right conditions for investment, from modernizing the grid and improving distribution to scaling embedded generation. By closing metering gaps, aligning tariffs with efficient costs, improving subsidy targeting to support the poor and vulnerable, and restoring regulatory trust, we are shifting from crisis response to sustained delivery and building the confidence needed to attract large-scale private capital.”
© 2025 Naijaonpoint, a division of NOP Media Inc. Contact us via [email protected]