Nigerians have been apologised to by the electricity utility for the blackouts.

Faced with mounting criticism and little sign of improved supply from the national grid, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has apologised to its customers and assured them that it was seeking alternative sources of power.

In a message to customers on Sunday, Adeoye Fadeyebi, the company’s managing director, blamed the blackouts on low generation and grid instability.

“We, the administration of Abuja Energy, recognise the dreadful and chronic situation of electricity supply to your various homes and offices,” he wrote.

“While we do not absolve ourselves of our responsibilities, we sincerely feel your grief and trauma, and we humbly ask for your continuing understanding.” To address the broader issues of low generation and system instability, we’re collaborating with other industry partners and stakeholders.

“We also write to inform you, our valued customers, of several quick-win intervention initiatives that Abuja Electricity has recently undertaken with the sole purpose of enhancing electricity delivery to our franchise region.

“The first is that we are in various stages of discussions with some power developers capable of providing us with a good level of embedded power generation within a few months to boost and complement whatever else we get from the National Grid, particularly for the purposes of improving supply to the Metropolitan FCT.”

“Aside from the low generation levels that are being seen across the country, we at AEDC have started 40 quick-win initiatives aimed at rehabilitating our network and, as a result, enhancing availability and customer satisfaction.” They include de-loading overburdened feeders, purchasing 81 new distribution transformers, and repairing 78 existing distribution transformers, among other things. In addition, we are performing substantial repairs on 34 power transformers.

“And we commit to you that in a matter of weeks to a few months (staggered), depending on the duration of these different projects, the power supply situation overall will be significantly improved.”