Residents of the Ring-fence Area of Aba, covering nine of Abia State’s 17 local government areas, were plunged into darkness on Friday evening due to an abrupt disruption in natural gas supply to the 188-megawatt Geometric Power Plant at the Osisioma Industrial Layout.

According to The Vanguard, the blackout began around 6:30 p.m., and halted electricity generation at the plant, cutting power supply to customers served by Aba Power, the electricity distribution arm of the Geometric Power Group.

The Managing Director of Aba Power, Ugo Opiegbe, who confirmed the development in a statement on Saturday, apologised to customers for the blackout, attributing it to technical issues affecting the company’s gas supplier.

According to him, the disruption caused a significant drop in gas pressure, making it impossible to operate the plant’s turbines.

Opiegbe said, “Gas pressure has significantly dropped in the last 24 hours. The pressure, arising from our partner’s facilities, is not strong enough to power our turbines, each of which has a 47MW capacity.”

Industry analysts linked the problem to long-standing infrastructure challenges inherited after Heirs Energies acquired operatorship of Oil Mining Lease 17 (OML 17), following the exit of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited.

Dike Ejike, a mechanical engineer and energy consultant, said the indigenous producer has made significant operational improvements but continues to grapple with ageing facilities.

“Heirs Energies has been investing aggressively since taking over the asset. 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.”

Uche Elugwu, an Abuja-based engineer, described the outage as unfortunate, noting that the disruption stems from gas supply challenges outside the control of Aba Power.

“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. This underscores the importance of strengthening gas infrastructure to ensure stable power generation.”