Nigeria was plunged into total darkness on Wednesday following yet another collapse of the national electricity grid, sparking frustration among millions of citizens and businesses nationwide.
According to reports, power generation on the grid plummeted from 2,917.83 megawatts to an alarming 1.5MW between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., effectively shutting down electricity supply across most parts of the country.
Shortly after the incident, Nigeria National Grid, an X handle that provides real-time updates on power distribution, confirmed the collapse, announcing: “System restoration is in progress.”
As at press time, distribution companies (DisCos) had not issued official statements on the cause of the failure or a clear timeline for restoration. The blackout, however, has already triggered anger on social media, with many Nigerians lamenting the persistent instability of the power sector.
This latest collapse adds to the long list of grid failures in recent years, despite government claims of investment in generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure. Industry experts argue that aging equipment, poor maintenance, and weak transmission capacity continue to hamper the country’s electricity supply chain.
The recurring outages have dealt a heavy blow to small and medium-scale enterprises that rely on power for daily operations, forcing many to depend on expensive alternative sources like generators and solar systems.
Meanwhile, energy analysts are calling on authorities to urgently address the systemic failures, warning that frequent grid collapses further erode investor confidence in the power sector and worsen Nigeria’s economic woes.
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