Abia State Governor Alex Otti has announced that the state is no longer affected by power outages caused by repeated collapses of Nigeria’s national grid, thanks to new investments in renewable energy generated from organic waste.
The governor made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking to journalists at the Government House in Umuahia.
Otti explained that his administration has begun converting waste materials into biogas, which is then used to generate electricity for residents. He added that the initiative has effectively removed Abia from the regulatory control of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
According to the governor, the new power arrangement has been successfully negotiated with and accepted by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), which oversees electricity distribution in the state.
“This is a pilot programme. Instead of throwing away waste, we can turn it into clean energy, and we will be able to power a lot of places, particularly the Umuahia in-farms,” he said.
Otti added, “Our offers to EEDC have been accepted, and we are in the process of raising the funds to pay them off. On December 24, the Abia State Electricity Regulation Authority took over regulation of power from NERC. Everything about distribution, generation, and transmission is now regulated within the state. The goal is to ensure efficiency and independence, similar to how Aba Power supplies the Aba in-farms.”
He noted that recent national grid failures did not affect Abia because a significant portion of the state’s power assets is now under state authority. “I am happy we are making a lot of progress in that regard,” he said.
His remarks follow the latest collapse of the national grid on Tuesday, the second failure recorded in 2026, which plunged several parts of the country into darkness.
Elijah Adeyemi
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