On September 10, 2025, Nigeria’s national power grid collapsed once again, leaving most of the country with no electricity. The outage began around 11:20 a.m., when one of the generation companies tripped, causing a rapid chain reaction that brought the grid down across the country.
A statement released from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) indicated that there was a pivoting collapse that began when the system experienced an abrupt load contraction. Soon after the collapse, almost all distribution companies reported allocations near zero. The telemetry from the grid identified that generation fell from approximately 2,917 megawatts down to 1.5 megawatts. Supply to Abuja though was restored later in the day using the Shiroro hydropower plant
While a generator tripping was claimed to be the cause, experts believe the incident is indicative of a deeper-structure problem. Nigeria’s power system is obsolete, neglected, and fragile, and it does not support system shocks.
Transmission lines and substations are fragile, and the system lacks speed to be able to recover from large generation outages. In addition, there is also a financial crisis in the sector.
The immediate effects hit the country hard and fast. Businesses in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt reported decreased sales revenue and damaged materials. Several homes seeking alternative electricity were forced to use costly diesel and gasoline generators. Even before the outages, the cost of diesel and gasoline was high enough for Nigerians, adding to the burden of household energy provision.
Experts agree that several immediate actions are therefore necessary. These include upgrading ageing transmission assets, implementing a real-time grid monitoring program to prevent system outages and failures, as well as decentralizing power supply via solar, mini-grids, and battery storage systems.
Concerned agencies and stakeholders in the sector have also suggested that the sector undergoes a fully transparent audit that identifies weaknesses in the structure of power operators, thus creating an environment of full accountability in the general operations of the sector.
Lastly, this grid collapse has further reflected the prevailing reality of failing grid and incessant system downtime in the power sector.
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