- Nigeria’s national grid has collapsed again
- The Wednesday loss of power from the national grid occurred at about 1 pm
- The national grid has witnessed incessant collapses, and the latest is the 12th time in 2024
Nigeria’s national grid has collapsed for the 12th time this year, throwing many parts of the country into darkness.
This news of the grid collapse was disclosed in a notice to customers by Jos Electricity Distribution CompanyElectricity Distribution Company (DisCo), on Wednesday, December 11.
The notice, signed by the company’s Head of Corporate Communication, Friday Elijah, said the loss of power from the national grid occurred at about 1:33 pm on Wednesday, resulting in an outage within its franchise states.
It read, “The current outage being experienced within our franchise States is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid. The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred this afternoon at about 1333 hours of today, Wednesday, 11th December 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders.
“We hope to restore normal power supply to our esteemed customers as soon as the grid supply is restored back to normalcy.
“Thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to serve you better.”
Other DisCos acknowledge loss of power
Although the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is yet to confirm the reported collapse of the national, other DisCos, including the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company and Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), acknowledged power outage and loss of power to their network, respectively.
A statement from EKEDC read, “Dear Valued Customer, kindly be informed there was a reported case of system disturbance on 11th November 2024 at 13:32hrs which has resulted to a loss of power supply across our network.
“We are currently working with our partners as we hope for speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as power supply is restored. Kindly bear with us.”
In a tweet,@NationalGridNg, which provides updates on power issues, stated that restoration efforts have commenced.
Recurring national grid collapse
Nigeria’s national grid has experienced incessant collapses, affecting businesses and other economic activities.
The grid has collapsed more than 105 times in the last 10 years, 93 times under President Muhammadu Buhari and 12 times in just 16 months of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
In 2024 alone, it has collapsed more than nine times. In October, the grid collapsed three consecutive times within one week on October 14, 15 and 19. It has also collapsed multiple times in November.
The frequent grid collapse may stall Nigeria’s goal of achieving 6,000 megawatts (MW) of power by year-end.
Nigeria loses $26bn yearly to electricity shortages –Report
Meanwhile, TheRadar reported that Nigeria suffers an estimated annual economic loss of $26 billion due to electricity shortages, according to a report, Africa Trade Barometer, by the Standard Bank.
According to the report, businesses shore up electricity shortages by spending nearly $22 billion annually on off-grid fuel, which leads to increased operational costs.
