A “total system collapse” led to widespread power outages across Nigeria on Thursday.
Power generation dropped to zero in the early hours of the morning before power supply was gradually restored throughout the day.
All 36 states, including the capital, Abuja, were without power as distribution companies scrambled to restore the power supply, Sky News reports.
By 10:30, the country’s power generation had risen to 273 MW – well below the daily average of 4,100 MW.
The Nigerian Minister of Electricity, Adebayo Adelabu, meanwhile said a transmission line connecting two power plants in the state of Niger exploded after a fire and consequently brought down the system.
“The fire has been fully extinguished and more than half of the connections have already been repaired. The rest will be completely repaired in no time,” Adelabu said earlier this afternoon.
The West African country regularly experiences large-scale power outages. The country’s power grid collapsed at least four times in 2022. The authorities attributed last year’s outages to technical problems.
However, today’s power outages are the most serious outage in a year, reports BBC.
Several electricity distribution companies told customers on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the most recent power outages were the result of a “total system collapse”.
Less than 50% of Nigeria’s population has access to regular power supply. Most homes and businesses in the country, just like in South Africa, use generators and inverters to depend as little as possible on the national grid.
Pres. Bola Tinubu, who has been in office for just over 100 days, has promised to improve supply by allowing individual state governments to build their own power plants.
