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In view of the constant collapses of the national grid, the Federal Government has begun the construction of a new ultra-modern National Control Centre (NCC) for the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) in Osogbo, Osun State.
The ultra-modern NCC will replace a 64-year-old facility that no longer meets the demands of running Nigeria’s grid.
In a statement, the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the Minister of Power, Adeola Labzy, said that the groundbreaking was performed by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, and supported by the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe.
In his remarks, the Vice President, represented by the Special Adviser (Legal), Office of the Vice President, said reliable electricity is central to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. He 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 NCC, 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, Tegbe said it gives NISO the ability to see what is happening across the national grid and respond promptly, describing it as a concrete expression of the President’s determination to fix the underlying weaknesses in electricity supply.
Once commissioned, the centre will bring integrated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), large-format displays and analytics that help operators spot developing faults, plan preventive maintenance and make better use of existing generation and transmission capacity.
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It will also improve responses to disturbances, support the integration of renewable energy and strengthen Nigeria’s co-ordination within the West African Power Pool, backed by stronger physical and cyber security.
For consumers and businesses, Tegbe said, the expected payoff is fewer avoidable outages and a more dependable supply. He cautioned that this also depends on adequate gas feedstock, well-maintained transmission equipment and distribution networks that can deliver power to end users, with the centre strengthening the co-ordination that turns those investments into usable electricity.
NISO’s Managing Director/CEO, Engineer Abdu Bello Mohammed, said the centre will improve NISO’s visibility of the national grid, sharpen co-ordination 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.
Meanwhile, the ceremony, which marks a new era of grid stability, was witnessed by the Board and Management of NISO, members of the National Assembly Committees on Power, leadership of various distribution companies, representatives of the Osun State Government, industry stakeholders and community leaders.
