AfrElec: Nigeria's power grid collapses for sixth time this year

On October 14, Nigeria experienced its sixth nationwide blackout of the year following another collapse of the national power grid. 

Data from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal revealed that, by 7pm, power generation had dropped to zero megawatts, with all 22 power generation companies (GenCos) shut down. This marks the sixth grid collapse in 2024 and raises concerns about the reliability of the country's electricity infrastructure, which has long struggled with stability issues.

The latest grid failure adds to a series of similar incidents earlier this year. The first blackout in 2024 occurred on February 4, when the grid collapsed, reducing power generation from 2,407 megawatts to zero by midday. The most recent blackout prior to October 14 was in August. Despite the frequency of these events, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has yet to provide any official explanation or solutions to address the root causes.

This latest blackout comes just weeks after the TCN launched the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which cost $56mn (€51.8mn) and was funded by the World Bank. At its launch ceremony, Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu stated that SCADA would enable sophisticated monitoring of the entire electricity network, allowing for prompt responses to outages and more efficient load management.

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