Nigeria faced yet another national grid collapse on Thursday, leaving the country in darkness for the tenth time in 2024, a record number of incidents within a single year.
The latest outage also comes just two days after a prior collapse, which shows the instability of the nation’s power sector. Several distribution companies, including Ikeja Electric and Eko DisCo, have confirmed the incident by issuing notices to customers on Thursday.
Despite the ongoing series of blackouts, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has remained silent regarding the most recent failure as stakeholders and citizens keep questioning the reliability of Nigeria’s electricity infrastructure.
In a statement to its customers, Ikeja Electric announced that the collapse occurred at 11:29 AM and assured consumers that works were underway with key stakeholders to restore power. Eko DisCo also issued a similar notice, indicating that a potential system failure had impacted supply across its network and expressing hope for a swift resolution with the support of relevant partners.
This series of grid failures is not unprecedented but has become alarmingly frequent as three national outages were recorded just in October alone, with each, plunging the nation into darkness and severely impacting daily life and business operations.
The disruptions have forced many to turn to costly self-powered generators, further straining citizens’ resources.
Following the recent breakdowns, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has announced plans to hold a public hearing to examine the root causes of these collapses. Meanwhile, the Minister of Power has acknowledged that grid failures may be unavoidable due to various factors affecting transmission lines.