Nigeria’s power grid crashes again, twice in four days

2026-01-27 - 17:33

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja Nigeria’s weak national power grid collapsed again on Tuesday, the second in four days and third in a month leaving the country without electricity supply. The grid collapse which occurred around 11am left the electricity distribution companies without load allocation from the grid. The Federal Government had in April last year unbundled the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) into two entities: Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) with the aim of strengthening the grid. Since then NISO has overseen the management of the grid but has failed to maintain stability and reliability of electricity supply across the country. Data from the system operator showed that the grid which supplied over 4,000MW the previous collapsed at 11am with all the 12 DisCos recording zero load allocation. Checks as at 4.56pm however indicated that the grid had started slow recovery with 10 GenCos at 1,417MW. Nigeria’s largest plant, Egbin Power as well as Kainji Hydro, Shiroro Hydro and Jebba Hydro were still not back on the grid. Azura Edo IPP at 395MW and Delta at 355MW were the top two suppliers to the grid. Confirming the crash, several DisCos informed the customers through social media handles of the power outage from the grid. Abuja DisCo wrote: “We regret to inform you that there is currently a loss of power supply across our franchise area. We do not have a view of when we will be restored to the grid, however our technical teams are working closely with relevant stakeholders to ensure the prompt restoration. “We will update you as soon as we have more information. We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to serve you better.” Port Harcourt DisCo also wrote: “Kindly be informed that the outage currently experienced in all our franchise is due to grid collapse. We appeal to our esteemed customers to exercise patience as the relevant team is working tirelessly to restore power Supply as soon as possible. All inconveniences are regretted”. On its part, Eko DisCo wrote: “Kindly be informed there was a system collapse at 10:48hrs which has resulted in a loss of power supply across our network. We are currently working with our TCN partners as we hope for the speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as the power supply is restored. Kindly bear with us.” Speaking to Vanguard on the frequent collapse of the grid, National Secretary, Nigeria Electricity Consumer Advocacy Network, Uket Obonga lamented that despite the loss of supply caused by the collapses consumers on estimated billing methods would get the same amount on their bills. He blamed endemic corruption and lack of capacity in the agencies managing the grid for the weak state of the power grid. “Nigerians are massively affected (by constant collapse of the grid). It is just that we are in a country where we do not take delight in conducting research to gather data. If you go round the city of Abuja, for instance, you will see the number of gadgets and no one is held accountable for it. For as long as no one is held to account for the failures, this will continue for a long time. “You are aware that we are on a service based tariff system but nobody monitors the DisCos. Even though they do not supply, nobody bothers. Nigerians continue to pay for darkness”, he added.