On Friday, a major system disturbance hit Nigeria’s national grid, leaving several parts of the country, especially Lagos, without power.
This outage came at a time when the Federal Government was celebrating a significant milestone—what it described as a historic rise in power generation to 6,000MW. However, the sudden disruption quickly overshadowed these celebrations.
Around 2:00 PM, power generation plummeted below 1,000MW, a sharp decline from approximately 4,000MW earlier in the day. The peak power generation for the day had been recorded at 5,284MW at 5:00 AM. However, by 4:00 PM, power generation had further dwindled to just 803MW, with many generation plants still unable to restore supply to the national grid.
The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) promptly addressed the situation, informing its customers in a public notice: “Dear esteemed customer, Please be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 07/03/2025 at 14:00hrs, affecting supply within our network. Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders. Kindly bear with us.”
Similarly, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) issued a similar notice to its customers, acknowledging the widespread power outage and reassuring them that efforts were underway to restore supply. “Dear valued customer, kindly be informed there was a system disruption on 7th March 2025 at 13:59hrs, which has resulted in a loss of power supply across our network. We are currently working with our partners as we hope for speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as the power supply is restored. Kindly bear with us,” the company said in its notice.
While the exact cause of the outage has not yet been disclosed, the event has highlighted the ongoing vulnerabilities in Nigeria’s national power infrastructure. Despite claims of a historic rise in power generation, this incident serves as a stark reminder of the challenges that still persist in ensuring a stable and reliable electricity supply for Nigerians.
As restoration efforts continue, millions of Nigerians are left grappling with irregular power supply, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of the country’s electricity grid.
The government’s ambitious goals for power generation now face serious scrutiny, with many questioning how such a disruption can occur amid claims of progress. With the national grid still recovering from the outage, Nigerians will be hoping for more consistent and reliable power in the future.
