Blackout Due to Line Tripping, Not Grid Collapse, Says TCN

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has clarified that the national grid did not experience a collapse on Friday. “It’s a line tripping, not a grid collapse,” said Ndidi Mbah, the Company’s spokesperson.

According to her, the line tripping, which happened at 2 pm, led to a reduction in electricity supply allocation on Friday. This explanation douses speculations about the national grid collapse, which was attributed to the drop in electricity by some distribution companies.

“Please be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 07/03/2025, at 14:00 hours, affecting supply within our network. Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders,” Ikeja Electric Distribution Company said on Friday.

It was believed that the national power grid suffered a major collapse on Friday, plunging several parts of the country, including Lagos, into darkness. This comes just days after the Nigerian government celebrated what it described as a “historic rise” in power generation to 6000 MW.

However, the sudden grid disturbance saw power generation plummet below 1000 MW at 2pm, down from approximately 4000 MW earlier in the day. The peak generation recorded on Friday was 5,284MW at 5 am.

By 4pm, available generation stood at a meagre 803 MW, as many power plants were yet to restore supply to the national grid.

Confirming the outage, the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) informed customers about the incident.

“Dear esteemed customer, please be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 07/03/2025, at 14:00 hrs, affecting supply within our network,” the company stated.

“Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders. Kindly bear with us.”

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company also issued an appeal to its customers.

“Dear valued customer, please be informed that a system disruption occurred on March 7, 2025, at 13:59 hrs, leading to a widespread power outage across our network.

“We are actively working with our partners to ensure a swift restoration of the grid. Updates will be provided as soon as power is restored. We appreciate your patience,” Eko DisCo stated.