The National Power Grid of Nigeria suffered another collapse on Friday, plunging large parts of the country into darkness and disrupting electricity supply to millions of households and businesses.
According to on-ground checks, power generation fell sharply from over 4,500 megawatts to just 24 megawatts by 1:30 pm. Reports indicate that all 23 power generation plants connected to the grid lost output, resulting in zero electricity allocation to each of the 11 distribution companies.
At the time of reporting, officials from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had not provided a detailed explanation for the outage.
This marks the first national grid collapse of 2026, occurring barely weeks after a similar incident on December 29, 2025, which also caused widespread blackouts across the country.
In recent years, experts have linked repeated grid collapses to technical faults, insufficient maintenance of transmission infrastructure, and fluctuations in generation capacity. The latest failure has renewed concerns over the reliability and resilience of Nigeria’s electricity infrastructure amid growing demand.
Stakeholders continue to urge the government and power operators to implement robust contingency measures to prevent recurring failures and ensure consistent power supply.
The public now awaits an official statement from the TCN as electricity consumers and businesses grapple with the impact of the latest blackout.
Elijah Adeyemi
