The national grid has suffered another system collapse on Tuesday, plunging several parts of the country into darkness just four days after the first major outage of 2026.
Data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator’s (NIGGRID) grid performance dashboard showed that real-time electricity generation dropped sharply to 39 megawatts (MW) as of 11:00 a.m., with supply coming from only one generating company. Several other power plants on the dashboard recorded zero output at the time of the disturbance.
Simultaneously, distribution load allocation figures indicated that power supply to electricity distribution companies (DisCos) nationwide fell to 0.00MW, confirming a widespread grid failure.
The first national grid collapse in 2026 occurred on Friday, January 23, 2026, with real-time data showing total generation falling to 0.00 megawatts, plunging large parts of the country into darkness.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), in a notice to customers, attributed the blackout to a system disturbance. “Kindly be informed that there was a system collapse at 10:48 hrs, which has resulted in a loss of power supply across our network,” the DisCo said.
“We are currently working with our TCN partners as we hope for the speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as power supply is restored.
“Kindly bear with us,” it said.
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This is the second grid collapse in January 2026 and the third in less than one month. The national grid previously collapsed on December 29, 2025, and more recently on Friday, January 23, 2026.
As the grid collapsed on Tuesday, load allocation to the distribution companies was 0.00 MW, indicating that no Disco was supplying electricity at the time of the incident.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator has yet to explain the cause of the current grid collapse.
NISO confirmed that the outage occurred at about 12:40 p.m., following the simultaneous tripping of several 330kV transmission lines.
Responding to Friday’s grid collapse, NISO said in a statement that the combined incidents resulted in a total collapse of the interconnected national grid.
“The Nigerian Independent System Operator wishes to inform the public that at approximately 12:40 hours on Friday, 23 January 2026, the national grid experienced a system-wide disturbance, which resulted in a total outage across the interconnected network,” the statement read.