According to The Guardian’s reporting on Saturday morning, Nigeria’s national electricity grid suffered its first total system failure of the year, with power generation plunging to 0.00 megawatts. The collapse reportedly occurred around 2:00 PM on Friday and disconnected all eleven electricity distribution companies (DisCos) from the transmission network, leaving major cities including Lagos, Abuja, and Kano without power.
Real-time data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) indicated that major thermal and hydro power plants—including Egbin, Kainji, and Jebba—went offline simultaneously. While the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had not, at the time of reporting, issued a detailed technical explanation, preliminary accounts pointed to a system disturbance that cascaded through ageing infrastructure.
Daily Post and Vanguard also confirmed the development, with Daily Post quoting energy analyst Paul Igbashangev describing the repeated collapses as harmful to businesses and households, while Vanguard framed the incident as evidence of persistent fragility in the transmission network.
Echotitbits take: This first collapse of 2026 reinforces that tariff adjustments alone do not address grid resilience. Unless Nigeria invests in spinning reserves, grid protection systems, and decentralized solutions (embedded generation and micro-grids), the same systemic failure pattern is likely to recur through the year.
Source: The Guardian (Nigeria) — https://guardian.ng/energy/again-nigerias-power-grid-collapses-causes-nationwide-blackout/ 2026-01-24
Photo Credit: The Guardian (Nigeria)
