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By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Mr. Abba Aliyu, has expressed strong confidence in the sustainability of the agency’s growing portfolio of mini-grid projects across Nigeria.
He insisted that the new deployments have been deliberately designed to overcome the structural weaknesses that have historically undermined electricity supply from the national grid.
Aliyu said the REA has adopted a fundamentally different approach to rural and peri-urban electrification by building energy systems that are largely independent of the country’s fragile centralised grid infrastructure.
Speaking in a recent interview, he explained that the agency’s current strategy focuses on deploying mini-grids directly within underserved and isolated communities, allowing them to generate and distribute electricity locally without relying on long transmission networks that are often prone to disruptions.
According to him, the design philosophy behind the projects was informed by years of operational challenges experienced within Nigeria’s power sector, where grid collapses, inadequate distribution infrastructure and weak metering systems have frequently limited the reliability of electricity supply.
Aliyu noted that the REA has deliberately incorporated lessons from these challenges into the architecture of its mini-grid systems to ensure they are more efficient, transparent and resilient.
He explained that each mini-grid installation developed by the agency is built with its own dedicated distribution network and supported by full metering of customers, a model he said addresses one of the key problems affecting electricity supply in the country.
“We have learned from the shortcomings of the main grid. Every mini-grid we deploy comes with its own distribution network, 100 per cent metering and a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system that allows us to monitor the performance of the grid remotely, even from a mobile phone,” he said.
Aliyu explained that the integration of digital monitoring systems enables the agency to track performance in real time, detect faults quickly and ensure that operators maintain service standards, thereby improving overall system reliability.
Beyond rural communities that currently lack any form of electricity access, the REA boss disclosed that the agency is also expanding its interventions to peri-urban areas where electricity distribution networks already exist but power supply remains inconsistent.
In such locations, he said the REA complements the existing infrastructure by installing solar-powered generation plants that supply electricity during the daytime, while working in partnership with electricity distribution companies through service-level agreements.
Under the arrangement, the solar plants provide power to the communities during daylight hours, while the distribution companies are expected to supply electricity from the grid at night.
However, to ensure that consumers do not experience prolonged outages if the distribution companies fail to deliver power as agreed, Aliyu said the systems are equipped with battery storage technology that automatically takes over supply.
“In peri-urban communities with existing distribution networks but unreliable electricity, we install our generation plants and work with the distribution companies through service-level agreements.
We provide solar power during the day while the DisCos are expected to supply power at night. If the DisCo fails to supply power, our battery storage system automatically kicks in,” he explained.
He further revealed that the REA is currently deploying about 50 interconnected mini-grids across different parts of the country, a project expected to inject roughly 280 megawatts of additional and reliable electricity into the power system.
According to him, the initiative represents a major step toward strengthening Nigeria’s energy access landscape while reducing dependence on a single, centralised power architecture that has struggled to meet the country’s growing electricity demand.
Aliyu said the combination of decentralised power generation, digital monitoring systems and battery storage solutions is helping the agency to create a more resilient energy ecosystem capable of delivering consistent electricity supply to communities that have historically remained underserved.
He added that the mini-grid model not only improves electricity access but also supports economic activities in rural communities by enabling small businesses, agro-processing ventures and other productive uses of electricity to thrive.
The REA boss maintained that with the continued deployment of these systems, Nigeria is gradually building an alternative electricity infrastructure that can complement the national grid while ensuring that millions of households and businesses are not left without reliable power.
