Aba's Ring-fence Area lost electricity on Friday evening after a sudden fall in natural gas pressure forced the 188-megawatt Geometric Power plant at Osisioma to stop generating, cutting supply to customers served by Aba Power.
The outage began around 6:30 p.m. and immediately halted the plant's turbines, leaving communities across nine of Abia State's 17 local government areas without power. Aba Power is the distribution arm of the Geometric Power Group.
In a Saturday statement, Aba Power managing director Ugo Opiegbe apologised to customers and blamed technical problems at the company's gas supplier. "Gas pressure has significantly dropped in the last 24 hours," Opiegbe said. "The pressure, arising from our partner's facilities, is not strong enough to power our turbines, each of which has a 47MW capacity." He warned it was unclear when normal pressure would return and that power might not resume within 24 hours.
The firm did not name its supplier in the release. Industry sources say Heirs Energies has delivered gas to the Geometric plant for the past three years via Associated Gas Gathering facilities in eastern Nigeria.
An official at Nigeria Gas Marketing Limited, speaking off the record because he was not authorised to speak publicly, told Vanguard that adequate gas volumes exist for the plant. The official said the core problem is not availability but the inability to swap supplies due to limitations in Heirs Energies' AGG infrastructure.
Analysts tied the production halt to long-running infrastructure weaknesses that accompanied Heirs Energies' takeover of operatorship for Oil Mining Lease 17 after The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited exited the asset. Mechanical engineer and energy consultant Dike Ejike noted progress since the change of hands, while flagging legacy issues. "Heirs Energies has been investing aggressively since taking over the asset," Ejike said. "However, it inherited legacy infrastructure that suffered years of underinvestment while the previous operator was engaged in prolonged litigation with the Federal Government over the renewal of its licence."
The blackout has unnerved businesses and residents in the Ring-fence Area, a zone that had won a reputation for steadier electricity since Geometric began operations. Abuja-based engineer Uche Elugwu called the interruption unfortunate and beyond the distribution company's control. "It is regrettable that the reliable electricity supply Aba residents have enjoyed is now being interrupted by gas supply issues beyond the control of Aba Power," he said. "This underscores the importance of strengthening gas infrastructure to ensure stable power generation"
For now, customers and local firms face an uncertain recovery timeline. Aba Power has signalled the disruption stems from upstream gas infrastructure constraints, leaving restoration dependent on repairs or operational fixes at the supplier's facilities.
