UPDATED: National grid collapses again, third time in a week

For the third time in just one week, the national power grid has collapsed, plunging the country into darkness.

The latest incident occurred early this morning at 8:40am leading to a total loss of power generation as the output dropped to zero megawatts (MW).

This recurring issue has raised serious concerns about the stability and resilience of the nation’s power infrastructure.

Although the Nigerian government and the sector regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) increased electricity tariff on the promised of stable electricity especially for band A customers, all the 19 power generation companies which were on the grid earlier today were ramped down except Azura-Edo IPP with 47MW.

All Distribution Companies (DisCos) load was at zero MW when it occurred, however, at 10:18am the total load was 220MW with Abuja Disco allocated 40MW, Benin DisCO 70MW, Eko DisCo 20MW, Enugu Disco 0MW, Ibadan Disco 60MW, Ikeja Disco 30MW, Jos Disco 0MW, Kaduna Disco 0MW, Kano Disco 0MW, PHarcourt Disco 0MW and Yola Disco 0MW.

The Guardian had reported that the collapse on Monday occurred at about 18:48 hours, while it occurred at 09:17hrs and 14:00hrs on Tuesday cutting out the distribution companies from supply.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had on Tuesday announced that it will investigate the cause of the recent grid collapse once full restoration has been completed.

TCN has emphasised the need for a thorough examination of the incident to identify and address any underlying issues within the transmission network.

The Public Affair General Manager of TCN, Ndidi Mba in a statement on Tuesday had confirmed the national grid experienced a partial disturbance, on Monday, 14th October 2024 at about 6:48 pm.

However, as at the time of filing this report, no official statement by TCN and any DisCo on the third collapse which occured on Saturday.

The repeated power outages have raised questions on X social media platform about Nigeria’s energy policies, grid stability and the effectiveness of investments in the sector.