Sanwo-Olu to end Lagos blackouts, targets 3.5GW power supply

By Adeola Ogunrinde

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to ending persistent blackouts in the state, as government officials and key stakeholders in the electricity sector met to develop sustainable solutions to the power supply challenges.

Sanwo-Olu gave the assurance at the Lagos State High-Level Strategic Power Town Hall, which was convened to assess the state’s electricity situation and develop practical measures to address challenges affecting power generation, transmission and distribution.

The engagement brought together stakeholders across the electricity value chain, including regulators, power distributors, transmission operators, asset managers, investors and representatives of the Federal Government, with discussions centred on leveraging Lagos’ huge electricity demand, existing infrastructure and emerging state electricity market to attract investment.

Speaking at the town hall, the Special Adviser to the President on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Power Sector Reset and Restoration, Dr. Rilwan Lanre Babalola, said the challenge facing Lagos and Nigeria was no longer simply about generating more electricity but about building a functional and sustainable electricity market.

Babalola said the country must move away from a system in which government continuously acts as buyer, guarantor and absorber of losses across the electricity value chain, adding that the proposed Clean Lagos Electricity Market could help transform the state’s electricity demand into a structured and investible market.

He explained that the proposed initial 500-megawatt Clean Lagos Electricity Market project would rely on demand aggregation, bilateral contracting, open access, payment assurance and transparent settlement, stressing that the model must first demonstrate reliable delivery, accurate metering and payment before it is expanded.

Similarly, the Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Biodun Ogunleye, said the town hall was convened to end the culture of blackout in Lagos, noting that the state had conducted studies and brought key sector players together to identify the challenges affecting electricity supply and determine practical solutions.

Ogunleye disclosed that Lagos currently receives less than one gigawatt of electricity from the national grid despite the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s capacity to transmit about 3.5 gigawatts, while the Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Temitope George, identified generation and transmission constraints, energy theft, vandalism and non-payment of electricity bills as major challenges, with the state’s electricity demand recently falling below 1,000 megawatts from a previous level of more than 1,500 megawatts.