Nigeria’s national grid collapsed again on Tuesday, forcing power generation down from a peak of 3,594.60 megawatts (mw) at midnight to a meagre 42.7megawatts at midday.
Only the Delta Power plant was active on the grid at noon, with 41mw, while Afam had 1.7mw.
At 11:32am all of the commercial hub of Lagos lost power supply from the grid. It is now blamed on a national system collapse.
This is the third collapse in less than one month that the Nigerian national grid has collapsed, and it comes barely five days after the grid collapsed twice within a space of 12 hours.
The collapse of the national grid has resulted in a nationwide blackout, with many Nigerians without electricity. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has not yet released a statement on the cause of the collapse. Still, it is likely due to inadequate infrastructure, gas supply problems, and transmission system constraints.
The collapse of the national grid is a significant setback for Nigeria’s economy and development. Nigeria is estimated to lose billions of dollars each year due to power outages. The outages also harm the quality of life of Nigerians, making it difficult for people to work, study, and run their businesses.
Meanwhile, the national power outage comes only a few days after the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu acknowledged that sufficient and efficient power supply is inevitable for the economic growth of any nation.
Adelabu made the submission during a reception organized in his honour by the committee of friends to celebrate his appointment and to pledge their support to him in his new task.
The reception held at the Ibadan Business School recently, courtesy of Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi, Sir Obafemi Oye and Chief Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja was attended by some notable personalities.
He said: “Fixing the power sector will require effective management and leadership to coordinate all the available resources, aside from adequate funding. This sector is the most sensitive sector in the economy that must not be held with levity.
“As an industrialist, I am aware that without energy, we cannot achieve any economic progress.
“Within the few months I assumed office, I was able to identify some of the challenges in the sector and how they could be resolved. Nigeria had invested billions of dollars in power generation, power transmission and power distribution, yet the masses do not feel the impact.
“However, this administration is committing efforts to invest in transmission and distribution infrastructure to boost capacity.
“We are very close to 24 hours of uninterrupted power. All house and other power consumers must be ready to pay their bills to prevent the sector from collapsing. It is in our power supply programme to install solar power in 25 universities and all teaching hospitals nationwide. My administration welcomes constructive suggestions from the general public for the progress of the sector,” he added.