The Nigerian national electricity grid collapsed on Tuesday morning, causing widespread power outages across the country and marking the second such incident in less than a week.
The national grid in Nigeria collapsed on Tuesday morning, cutting power supply to millions of homes and businesses across the country. Data obtained by TheCable from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) showed that load allocation to the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) dropped to zero megawatts (MW) as of 11 a.m., while power generation fell to just 39 MW.
This marks the second grid collapse in less than a week, following a previous failure on January 23, which was the first of the year. The repeated outages have intensified concerns over the reliability of Nigeria’s power infrastructure and its impact on the economy.
According to NISO, the collapse was caused by a system-wide disturbance. “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 operator said.