NISO, FG Outline Steps To Cut Outages, Improve National Grid Stability

The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) and the federal government have outlined steps to reduce power outages and improve the stability of the national grid.

This followed a meeting between the managing director/CEO of NISO, Abdu Bello Mohammed, and the special adviser to the president on Power, Lanre Babalola, at NISO’s corporate headquarters in Abuja on Friday

According to NISO, Mohammed, and Babalola’s talks focused on practical measures to strengthen grid reliability, enhance operational efficiency and increase transparency across the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

“The federal government is committed to supporting NISO to deliver on its mandate,” Babalola said.

“We must prioritise prudent resource management and greater operational discipline to reduce system disturbances and give Nigerians a more reliable power supply.”

Deliberations during the meeting produced a set of priority actions, NISO said. These include tighter coordination between market participants, improved monitoring of grid performance, clearer protocols for incident response and stepped‑up efforts to address recurring causes of faults that trigger widespread outages.

Mohammed described the meeting as “productive and outcome‑driven.” He said NISO will implement a combination of short‑term interventions and medium‑term reforms to improve system stability.

“We will work with generation and distribution companies to tighten fault‑reporting, speed up restoration times and enhance transparency in operational data,” he said.

Both parties emphasised greater accountability and the need for measurable targets. Babalola said the government expects NISO to report regular progress updates and to align its actions with the broader power sector reform agenda.

“We want to see clear indicators of improvement — fewer disturbances, faster recovery and better use of available resources,” he added.
NISO also pledged to strengthen its real‑time control procedures and to deploy enhanced analytics for early detection of grid stress. Officials said these measures will help anticipate problems before they escalate into large‑scale outages and will support coordinated responses across transmission, generation and distribution operators.
The meeting underscored the importance of transparency in rebuilding confidence in the power sector.
“Open, timely information on grid conditions helps all stakeholders make better decisions.”

“NISO will continue to publish operational data and work with the federal government to improve public communications on grid performance,” Mohammed said.

On his part, Babalola re-emphasised renewed resolve by the federal government to deliver tangible improvements for electricity consumers.

“This is not just talk. We have agreed concrete steps and we will follow them through,” he said.