Nigeria’s electricity grid suffered another system failure on Tuesday morning, throwing many parts of the country into darkness and worsening concerns over the fragility of the power sector.
Data obtained from the Nigerian Independent System Operator showed that power generation to the 11 electricity distribution companies dropped to zero megawatts at about 11am, following the collapse of the grid.
As of 11:44am, gradual restoration had commenced, with Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company receiving about 50 megawatts, while Ikeja Electric was allocated roughly 40 megawatts.
The incident marked the second collapse of the national grid within five days. The previous outage in 2026 was recorded on January 23.
In a statement explaining the latest breakdown, the Independent System Operator said the outage was caused by a major disturbance on the transmission network, which affected critical infrastructure.
According to the operator, preliminary operational findings linked the system failure to the simultaneous tripping of multiple 330 kilovolt transmission lines, as well as the loss of some grid-connected generating units.
The operator noted that the combination of these events ultimately led to the collapse of the grid at the time indicated.
Nigeria’s electricity sector has continued to grapple with recurring system failures.
The national grid experienced several collapses in 2025 alone, with the last recorded incident occurring on December 29.