The power grid across Nigeria completely collapsed on Wednesday morning (12 May) plunging much of the country into a blackout.
The voltage-related supply failure, the second such network-wide outage this year, took place at around 11 am.
Three of the country’s electricity distribution companies, Ikeja Electric, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, and Kaduna Electric, confirmed the collapse in communications with customers.
While General Manager (Public Affairs) of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Ndidi Mbah took to Twitter to release a statement about the incident.
SYSTEM COLLAPSE & GRID RECOVERY pic.twitter.com/u4yLJs0PXy
— TCNNIGERIA (@TCN_NIGERIA) May 12, 2021
The electricity system in Nigeria, which has a population of around 200 million people, has been much-criticised for its outdated analogue system and poor maintenance.
Because of these inadequacies the network only uses around 4,500 MW of its installed capacity of 13,000 MW.
The Guardian Nigeria claims that this latest failure was the 29th complete or partial grid collapse in the last three years.
It cites data from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator (NESO) which reveal four failures in 2020, 10 in 2019, and 13 in 2018, while there was a partial collapse in February this year.
In April, the state government of the capital Lagos announced plans to transition the electricity market more towards private sector ownership and operation.
