Nigeria’s already fragile electricity sector faced yet another setback on Wednesday after the national grid collapsed, throwing most parts of the country into blackout.
The system, notorious for frequent breakdowns, crashed from about 4,500 megawatts to just 120 MW. In a public notice, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) confirmed the outage, attributing it to a “total loss of supply” from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) around 11:23 a.m.
“Please be informed that the power outage currently being experienced is due to a loss of supply from the national grid, affecting electricity supply across our franchise areas,” AEDC announced, adding that efforts were underway with stakeholders to restore power once the grid stabilises.
Real-time data from the National System Operator (NSO) at 1:10 p.m. showed that only 120 MW were available nationwide a fraction of Nigeria’s installed capacity of more than 12,000 MW and far below the average daily distribution of 4,000–5,000 MW.
The meagre supply was shared among only four distribution companies: Ibadan Disco received about 50 MW, Enugu 40 MW, Abuja 20 MW, and Benin 10 MW. The remaining seven DisCos Ikeja, Eko, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Port Harcourt and Yola were left with no allocation at all, leaving millions of customers without electricity.
This latest collapse adds to a string of persistent grid failures that have crippled Africa’s largest economy, further underscoring the country’s deepening energy crisis.
