A nationwide collapse of the power grid in Nigeria led to a drastic reduction in power generation to 59.9 megawatts around 12 pm on Sunday. According to data from the Federal Ministry of Power, electricity generation on the grid plummeted from 2,658.75MW at 11 am to 59.9MW by noon as power distributors experienced a loss of supply from the grid.
This grid collapse resulted in widespread blackouts across the country, with power distribution companies attributing the outage to the grid collapse managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), a federal government agency.
Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company confirmed that the loss of bulk power supply left Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states without electricity on Sunday. Similarly, Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc informed its customers of the power outage, attributing it to a system failure on the national grid.
While addressing the situation, the Head of Corporate Communications at Kaduna Disco, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, assured customers that power supply would be restored as soon as they received bulk supply at load centres across their franchise.
Figures from TCN indicated that after dropping to 59.9MW around 12 pm, power generation gradually increased to 1,051.4MW at 6 pm. The incident follows a series of grid collapses in Nigeria, with the most recent one reported on December 12, 2023.
Despite the privatization of the power sector in 2013, grid collapses have remained a recurring issue, leading to nationwide blackouts. The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, recently met with top management teams of power generating and distribution companies to find lasting solutions to the challenges facing the power sector. Adelabu highlighted the importance of resolving issues such as low gas supply to power generation companies and addressing the sector’s liquidity challenges.
