Nigeria’s national electricity grid suffered a total collapse on Tuesday morning, marking the second major system failure in just five days and causing widespread power outages across the country.
Data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) obtained by Fairview Africa revealed that power allocation to the nation’s 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) plummeted to zero megawatts (MW) by 11 a.m. Total generation crashed to a mere 39 MW, a fraction of the nation’s operational capacity.
This latest incident follows a previous national grid collapse recorded on January 23, the first of the year. The back-to-back failures have thrown the country’s fragile power infrastructure into sharp relief.
In a statement addressing the cause of Tuesday’s collapse, the NISO attributed the failure to a “system wide disturbance.” The operator cited the simultaneous tripping of several critical 330kV transmission lines and the sudden disconnection of multiple generating units as the triggers.
“Preliminary operational reports indicate that the disturbance was associated with the simultaneous tripping of multiple 330kV transmission lines, alongside the disconnection of some grid connected generating units,” the NISO stated.
“These events collectively contributed to the system collapse at the time indicated.”The consecutive collapses have intensified scrutiny on the stability of the national grid, raising urgent concerns about systemic vulnerabilities and their impact on households, businesses, and essential services nationwide.
