Amid fresh disruptions to electricity supply across Nigeria, Abia State says it has insulated itself from recurring national grid collapses through a locally regulated power system driven partly by renewable energy.
Governor Alex Otti disclosed this on Thursday during a briefing with journalists at the Government House in Umuahia, explaining that the state has begun generating electricity from biogas produced from organic waste. The initiative, he said, has reduced Abia’s dependence on the national grid and placed its power supply under state-level regulation.
According to the governor, the arrangement has been agreed with the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), which is responsible for electricity distribution in Abia. He noted that the state has also commenced steps to raise funds to settle outstanding obligations to the distribution company.
Otti said the waste-to-energy project is being implemented as a pilot scheme, with a focus on powering key areas, including industrial clusters around Umuahia. He added that the state electricity regulatory authority formally assumed responsibility for regulating power generation, transmission and distribution from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on 24 December.
Under the new framework, the governor said, Abia now regulates its electricity market independently, similar to the model already in place for the Aba industrial area, which is served by a dedicated power provider.
He attributed the state’s continued electricity supply during recent national grid failures to the fact that a significant portion of its power assets now falls under its own regulatory control, including facilities serving the Umuahia industrial zones.
The governor’s comments followed another collapse of the national grid on Tuesday, the second such incident in 2026, which left large parts of the country without electricity.
