By Faridat Salifu
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has announced plans to conduct a public hearing to investigate the frequent collapses of the national grid, which have resulted in widespread blackouts across the country.
The announcement follows the most recent grid collapse on Saturday morning, marking the third incident in just five days and the eighth in 2024.
At around 8:15 a.m. on Saturday, Nigeria’s national grid experienced a total failure, plunging multiple cities into darkness. Power supply across the country dropped to zero megawatts (MW), disrupting services to all electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
By 9:00 a.m., partial recovery efforts restored 140 MW to Benin, Ibadan, and Ikeja DisCos, though full power was not restored until later in the day, with 720 MW available by 3:25 p.m.
In its statement, NERC expressed concern over the increasing frequency of grid disturbances, which it says are reversing the gains made in recent years toward stabilizing Nigeria’s electricity supply.
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Saturday’s collapse was reportedly triggered by the explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station, which caused a cascade of shutdowns at power plants across the grid.
NERC plans to launch an investigative public hearing to determine the root causes of these recurring outages. The commission said the hearing would involve key stakeholders, and details on the date and venue would be published in national newspapers. The hearing is expected to address both immediate technical failures and long-term challenges in grid management.
The commission also noted ongoing efforts to unbundle the System Operator function from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which it believes will lead to better grid management and optimized investment in infrastructure.
While power has been gradually restored, concerns over the stability of the national grid remain.
The repeated failures have prompted many manufacturers and large electricity consumers to seek alternative power sources.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, attributed the ongoing grid instability to outdated infrastructure, adding that the government is working on plans to establish alternative grids across different regions to mitigate future disruptions
