By Eteteonline
Nigeria’s national electrical grid failed on Friday, January 23, 2026, resulting in a nationwide blackout that affected major cities and regions.
During the event, electricity generation fell precipitously from about 4,000–4,500 megawatts (MW) to almost zero (as low as ~20–24 MW).
The majority of the nation lacked public grid power since all 11 energy distribution companies (DisCos) reported 0% power allocation.
Homes, businesses, vital infrastructure, and services across the country were all impacted by the late morning to early afternoon system disruption, which happened between 12:40 and 1:00 pm local time.
The collapse was caused by a system-wide disturbance involving the simultaneous tripping of many 330 kV transmission lines and the disconnection of several producing units, according to the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), which is in charge of overseeing grid operations.
Authorities have not yet released a thorough, definitive root-cause report, and investigations are still ongoing.
DisCos and grid management have been attempting to restore supply. Although complete stability can take longer, certain cities and feeder networks gradually recovered power within hours.
After a similar failure in late December 2025, this is the first grid breakdown in 2026, underscoring the continued reliability issues in Nigeria’s electricity industry.
About a dozen grid breakdowns occurred in 2024, which is regarded as one of the most unstable years in recent history. Although there were fewer widely publicized full failures in 2025 than in 2024, there were still some noteworthy outages, including a major grid breakdown in September 2015.
Nigeria has a persistent underproduction of power. The grid is under systemic stress because the available generation capacity is still much behind demand (often only ~4,000–5,000 MW for a population of ~220+ million).
Recurrent grid failures have long been attributed to aging infrastructure, underinvestment, poor maintenance, and weak transmission networks, according to energy professionals and political authorities. Decentralized generation, mini-grids, renewable energy sources, and sector structural reform have become hot topics of public discussion.
The most recent significant failure, the grid collapse on January 23, 2026, highlights the system’s continued vulnerability.
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