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Nigeria’s national power grid experienced a complete failure at around 6:48 p.m. yesterday, causing a total loss of electricity generation and plunging homes and businesses into darkness.
According to information gathered by THISDAY, efforts were quickly initiated to address the situation. As of now, limited power has been restored, with the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) receiving 30MW and the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) getting 20MW.
Multiple electricity distribution companies, including AEDC, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), and the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), confirmed the grid collapse in separate statements released last night.
Emeka Ezeh, Head of Corporate Communications at EKEDC, explained that the collapse led to widespread outages across their network, impacting customers in states like Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo. He noted that all of EEDC’s interface stations with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had lost power and said the company was awaiting updates from the National Control Centre (NCC) in Osogbo on the cause of the collapse and the status of restoration efforts.
Similarly, EKEDC confirmed that the power grid’s failure resulted in a complete loss of supply across its network. The company reassured customers that it was collaborating with relevant partners to ensure power was restored as soon as possible, with updates to follow as more information became available.
AEDC also issued a statement, informing customers that the outage was due to a national grid failure at 6:58 p.m., affecting its service areas. The company promised that efforts were underway with relevant stakeholders to restore power as soon as the grid stabilized, thanking customers for their patience.
At the time of this report, TCN had yet to issue an official statement explaining the cause of the collapse. The outage has left millions across the country in darkness, affecting areas serviced by Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Yola distribution companies.
Despite the situation, partial recovery of the grid has begun, with AEDC and BEDC receiving a combined 50MW of power. TCN data showed that as of 7 p.m. yesterday, only Ibom Power remained online, generating 42.7MW.
