Oluwabunmi: Using Data to Safeguard Nigeria’s Power Grid Is A Dream Come True

In 2021, Akomolafe Oluwabunmi was celebrated for graduating with a First-Class degree in Electrical Engineering from a leading university of technology in Nigeria. Today, she is being recognized as a key figure in a new generation of engineers who are transforming the nation’s infrastructure from behind the scenes. She led a specialized team during the recent national power grid upgrade, a project that added nearly 4,000 MW of capacity with unprecedented stability. We connected with her virtually to understand the “digital discipline” that made this national achievement possible. Excerpt below.

Your team was central to the recent national grid upgrade, but your work wasn’t in the field with the transformers. Can you explain what your team did?

Of course. Thank you for having me. My team’s role was to essentially build the future before it happened. We were tasked with creating a “digital twin”—a complete, dynamic replica of the nation’s power grid inside a computer. Before a single real-world transformer was switched on, we connected it in our virtual world. We simulated the flow of power, tested for stress, and threw every imaginable problem at it, all within the safety of our simulation. Our job was to find and fix the problems digitally, so the field engineers could execute their work with a high degree of confidence.

That sounds incredibly complex. Why was this simulation-first approach so necessary for a project of this scale?

For critical national infrastructure, there’s no room for error. You can’t just ‘undo’ a blackout that affects millions. The grid is a balanced, living system. Adding a massive new source of power is like a shock to that system. Without knowing exactly how the system will react, you risk cascading failures. Our work was to provide that foresight. By modeling every contingency, we provided a detailed, data-driven blueprint for each integration. It was the necessary step to move from hoping for stability to engineering it.

You transitioned from being a top academic performer to leading this critical national function very quickly. How did that academic background prepare you for this kind of real-world problem?

University provides you with an essential toolkit—the physics, the mathematics, the engineering principles. It teaches you how to solve clean problems on a whiteboard. A project of this magnitude, however, teaches you how to solve messy, real-world problems. It was an incredible privilege for my team and I to take those theoretical principles and apply them at a national scale. Our guiding philosophy was simple: use data to ensure that every step forward for our grid was a safe one.

You often say ‘my team.’ How important was collaboration in this digital approach?

It was everything. This was never a solo effort. My role was to set the direction and architect the overall model, but the success came from a fusion of specialized skills. We had brilliant data engineers, software specialists who could optimize our code, and veteran network experts who understood the physical grid better than anyone. It was the combination of these minds, focused on a single goal, that allowed us to create something so robust. I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished together.

You’ve had a remarkable journey since your own graduation. What advice would you give to young engineering graduates just starting their careers today?

My advice would be to cultivate a deep sense of curiosity beyond your degree. Your university provides the foundation, but the tools of our trade are evolving at an incredible pace. Learn to code, especially in languages like Python, because data is the new universal language. Learn how to communicate complex ideas in simple terms; the most brilliant model is useless if you can’t explain its importance. Lastly, don’t just solve the problem you are given; be relentlessly curious about the “why” behind it. That is where true innovation begins.

And for established professionals who might be used to more traditional engineering methods?

I have immense respect for the deep experience of established professionals; their intuition is something no computer can replicate. My advice is to see these new digital tools not as a replacement for that experience, but as a powerful amplifier. Data analytics and simulation provide a new lens to see stresses and patterns that were previously invisible. I would encourage them to embrace collaboration. When you fuse decades of real-world experience with the capabilities of new data-driven tools, the results are extraordinary. The fusion of experience and new methods is where the real magic happens.

Finally, from your unique vantage point, what is one piece of advice you would offer to the government and its agencies?

It would be to invest in data infrastructure with the same seriousness that we invest in physical infrastructure. A project’s success shouldn’t be measured only by its completion, but also by the quality of the data it generates for future planning. My advice is to build frameworks that empower and trust local technical experts and their data-driven insights. Foster a national culture of “measure, model, then build.” By doing so, we ensure that every Naira we spend on infrastructure is not just a short-term fix, but a long-term, intelligent investment in a more stable and prosperous future.