Deborah Akinyosoye
The national grid has suffered another system collapse on Tuesday, plunging several parts of the country into darkness just four days after the first major outage of 2026.
Data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator’s (NIGGRID) grid performance dashboard showed that real-time electricity generation dropped sharply to 39 megawatts (MW) as of 11:00 a.m., with supply coming from only one generating company. Several other power plants on the dashboard recorded zero output at the time of the disturbance.
Simultaneously, distribution load allocation figures indicated that power supply to electricity distribution companies (DisCos) nationwide fell to 0.00MW, confirming a widespread grid failure.
The first national grid collapse in 2026 occurred on Friday, January 23, 2026, with real-time data showing total generation falling to 0.00 megawatts, plunging large parts of the country into darkness.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), in a notice to customers, attributed the blackout to a system disturbance. “Kindly be informed that there was a system collapse at 10:48 hrs, which has resulted in a loss of power supply across our network,” the DisCo said.
The company added that restoration efforts were ongoing in collaboration with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). “We are currently working with our TCN partners and hope for the speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as the power supply is restored. Kindly bear with us.”
The latest incident marks the second national grid collapse within four days, raising fresh concerns about the stability and resilience of Nigeria’s power infrastructure. The first collapse earlier in the week also led to widespread outages, with generation dropping to near zero before gradual recovery.
As of press time, there was no official statement from NISO on the cause of the collapse.