Nigeria’s electricity grid yesterday recorded its third collapse in a month.

Yesterday’s collapse will also be the second occurrence in four days that major cities in the country will be put in blackout due to disturbance on the grid.

While electricity was gradually restored, the collapse occurred around 11:40 am with all the 23 electricity generating plants knocked off as distribution companies were not supplied any electricity.

Confirming the collapse, the NISO stated that at approximately 10:48 hours on January 27, 2026, the national grid experienced a voltage disturbance which originated from the Gombe Transmission Substation.

It said the voltage disturbance rapidly propagated across the network, affecting Jebba, Kainji, and subsequently Ayede Transmission Substations.

“The event was accompanied by the tripping of some transmission lines and generating units, resulting in a partial system collapse.”

It said that appropriate corrective actions were immediately implemented to stabilize the system and restore normal operations.

“Restoration, which began at about 11:11am has since been completed.

The incident only affected part of the grid therefore not a total collapse as reported by

some media organizations.

The national grid has been fully restored and electricity supply across the affected areas has since returned to normal,” it said.

Causes of grid collapse

Speaking with Daily Trust, Odion Wesley Omonfoman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Hampshire Capital Limited, said the transmission line that connects the cover the center and breadth of Nigeria from the swamps to the north, thus grid collapse is not something that would stop.

He noted that its vastness makes it prone to vandals or in some cases generators in power plants may not be able to produce because the gas pipeline has been disrupted.

He however said what is important is if it collapses is how quickly it can be restored.

“So I think that’s the metric we should be looking at when we can make the grid more stable and have redundant capabilities on the grid,” it said.

“But just to summarize, it’s going to be a challenge if we want to stop grid collapses. It’s something that is stubborn, the grid can be attacked and it’s being attacked by vandals. I don’t know what really caused yesterday’s collapse but if you notice the last grid collapse, what NISO said was that there was some disturbance on the 330 kv line,”

He added that with the sector liberalized, as states now have the power to invest in the electricity sector of their state, those who are serious can establish their own grid to serve as an alternative.

“So you’ll find that as more state electricity markets become mature, people are going to have alternatives to the national grid. I’m not saying people will exit the national grid, but I think having state electricity markets interconnected to the national grid will provide that level of resilience that the grid requires. But as states begin to develop the electricity markets, you’re going to see a lot more customers that are not solely reliant on the national grid.”

“Or instances where the national grid collapses, people won’t lose supply because they can easily switch to the state grid or state resources to provide power.”

He also noted that the exit of the grid by heavy users should be a thing of concern from the federal government and market operators.

“When large customers are exiting the grid, somewhat using, developing their own captive power to power themselves or going the renewable energy way, that would obviously affect the revenue that can be collected.”

“It is also very possible that some of these collapses are happening because, you know, the way electricity works, when you generate it, somebody at the other end has to consume it. So you must have a balance with that. So any disruption in that equilibrium will bring down the grid. For instance, if a large generator suddenly stops because there’s no gas supply, there’s the load on the customer side.”

On his part, Uket Obonga, a prominent Nigerian consumer rights advocate serving as the National Secretary of the Nigeria Electricity Consumers Advocacy Network (NECAN) told Daily Trust that the country’s power sector is challenged on account of the grid failures lately which caused the exodus of companies in Nigeria to other shores.

He identified increased infrastructure investment, electricity market restructuring and power decentralisation as a way out of the grid mess.

He added: “The real solution starts with serious infrastructure investment, followed by power decentralisation and electricity market restructuring.”

What government can do to stop collapse – Expert

Also, the Former Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Aliyu Tambuwal, said the government can arrest the situation by providing the atmosphere for the power sector players to be able to contribute to stop the system from collapsing.

He said the NISO is saddled with the responsibility of obtaining a spinning reserve which he said is an instrument that ensures that if there is low generation, there should be some power station reserved that should come on immediately to cushion the effect so that the system is stabilized.

“So, all these things are supposed to be provided now by the government since the Nigerian Independent System Operator and the transmission companies are all under government control. On the other hand, generation companies too should be able to expand their generation beyond what they are doing now. And if we have a gas constraint, the government has a responsibility to ensure that we don’t have such a constraint to reduce the generation to a dangerously low level that can cause system collapse.”

“We have hydros too and we know this period of the year we have low levels of water. So you may not rely much on them. So, a lot needs to be done on the thermal systems so that we have generating units that can quickly be started to prevent system collapse, like the spinning reserve aspect.

He said distribution companies also have a role in ensuring that they maintain the allocation that is given to them.

“If, for example, Abuja is asked to take 500 megawatt and it decides to take 700 megawatts, it means it has gone above the allocated load and that can destabilize the system and cause system collapse. So, there has to be great discipline on all participants to ensure that the grid is not thrown into this kind of tragedy as we are witnessing,” he said.

LCCI demands forensic audit of national grid, projects 10 incidents in 2026

Meanwhile, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has expressed grave concern over the second collapse of the national power grid within five days, thereby plunging large parts of the country into darkness and severely disrupting economic activity nationwide.

The Chamber noted that the recurrence of grid failures highlights deep-seated structural and operational weaknesses within Nigeria’s power transmission system, posing a direct threat to manufacturers, micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs), and the overall business environment.

Dr. Chinyere Almona, Director-General/ Chief Executive Officer of LCCI, in a statement said, “This development is particularly troubling at a time when the economy is expected to transition from crisis management and stabilization (2023–2025) into a consolidation phase in 2026.”

Based on recent trends and in the absence of urgent structural interventions, the LCCI estimates that Nigeria could experience tens of grid collapses in 2026 under a business-as-usual scenario.

However, with immediate reforms, system upgrades, and strict operational discipline, these incidents can be reduced to zero, moving the country closer to the grid reliability benchmarks required for sustainable economic consolidation, it stated.

The Chamber emphasized that repeated grid failures impose severe costs on businesses through lost production hours, damage to equipment, increased dependence on self-generation, higher operating expenses, and declining competitiveness.

These disruptions weaken investor confidence, fuel inflationary pressures, and undermine the credibility of ongoing economic reforms.

In light of this, the LCCI called on the Federal Government to take a decisive and transparent step by instituting an independent forensic audit of the national grid.

The audit should comprehensively examine transmission infrastructure integrity, system protection schemes, operational protocols, and the governance framework for grid management. The outcome of this exercise should form a core component of an urgent grid performance reform programme in the short term.

The Chamber warned that without swift and decisive intervention, recurring grid collapses will continue to frustrate the government’s objective of entering an economic consolidation phase in 2026, while constraining productivity, exports, and job creation. (Daily Trust)

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