National Grid Collapses Again as Power Generation Crashes to 24MW
Nigeria’s national power grid has suffered another collapse, plunging large parts of the country into darkness and disrupting electricity supply to millions of homes and businesses.
Checks by our correspondent revealed that power generation, which stood at over 4,500 megawatts earlier on Friday, dropped drastically to as low as 24 megawatts by about 1:30 pm, following the system failure.
Findings further showed that all 23 power generation companies connected to the national grid were affected by the incident, with each of the 11 electricity distribution companies receiving zero power allocation at the peak of the collapse.
As of the time of filing this report, the cause of the grid failure had not been officially determined.
Officials of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) were yet to issue a detailed statement explaining the circumstances surrounding the collapse or when full restoration of supply would be achieved.
This incident marks the first recorded national grid collapse in 2026 and comes barely weeks after a similar system failure on December 29, 2025, which also triggered widespread power outages across the country.
Online reports that Nigeria has experienced repeated grid collapses in recent years, with experts attributing the frequent failures to a combination of technical faults, aging and poorly maintained transmission infrastructure, limited investment, and fluctuations in power generation capacity.
The recurring collapses have continued to raise concerns among stakeholders, who have repeatedly called on the Federal Government, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, and power sector operators to implement stronger contingency measures, upgrade transmission facilities, and improve system stability to prevent repeated nationwide blackouts.
While electricity supply was gradually being restored in some areas hours after the incident, many consumers remained without power, further fuelling public frustration over the fragility of the country’s electricity infrastructure and its capacity to meet growing demand.
The latest grid collapse has once again renewed debate over the urgent need for comprehensive reforms and sustained investment in Nigeria’s power sector to ensure reliable and uninterrupted electricity supply.
