NIGERIA’S national power grid collapsed again on Thursday, November 7, marking the second failure in just three days and the tenth since February 2024.
This latest outage plunged several regions into darkness, disrupting businesses, essential services, and daily life across the country.
According to data from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal, power generation dropped to an unprecedented zero megawatts at 11:30 a.m., affecting all 22 operational generation companies (GenCos) nationwide. Earlier this week, a similar collapse led to widespread outages, with power restored to key areas only after several hours.
This blackout is another blow to Nigeria’s struggling power sector, which has been plagued by instability, insufficient capacity, and frequent grid disturbances. The repeated failures have fueled public frustration and raised concerns over the stability of Nigeria’s power infrastructure.
In the past ten months, Nigeria has faced frequent outages, exposing systemic issues within the country’s electricity network. The ICIR reports that each failure affects households, businesses, and critical sectors like healthcare, where a consistent power supply is essential.
This latest collapse adds to an increasingly alarming trend. The first major blackout of the year occurred on February 4, 2024, when the grid’s capacity fell from 2,407 megawatts to just 31 megawatts by midday, eventually reaching zero. Since then, breakdowns have recurred, with collapses on August 5 and three times in October. Notably, the October 14 collapse was followed by a partial failure the next day, and another disturbance occurred on October 19, narrowly avoiding a complete collapse.
While TCN has yet to issued comments on the collapse, Ikeja Electric and Jos Electricity Distribution PlC, have confirmed the collapse, nothing that the current outage being experienced within their franchise states is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid.
“The current outage being experienced within our franchise States is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid. The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred this morning at about 1128 hours of today, Thursday, 7th November 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders.
“We hope to restore normal power supply to our esteemed customers as soon as the grid supply is restored back to normalcy,” a statement by the Head, Corporate Communications of Jos DISCOS, Friday Adakole Elijah, read in part.
Also, Ikeja Electric wrote: “Please be informed that we experienced a system outage today 07 November 2024 at 11:29Hrs affecting supply within our network.
“Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, an industry analyst has attributed the frequent collapses to outdated and deteriorating transmission infrastructure. “The transmission infrastructure is obsolete and decayed infrastructure. TCN needs to take its maintenance activities seriously and not wait until there’s a crisis for them to be giving excuses for Nigerians,” Kunle Kola Olubiyo, a power sector governance expert and president of Nigeria’s Consumer Protection Network, told The ICIR.
In October, The ICIR reported that the national power grid collapsed three times within one week, exacerbating frustrations nationwide. The ongoing outages are impacting businesses, households, and essential services, highlighting the need for urgent reforms in Nigeria’s power sector.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M