From Victor Osula, Abuja
The Nigerian national grid collapsed again on Monday afternoon, December 29, 2025, plunging several parts of the country into a total blackout. The system failure resulted in a massive drop in power generation from a peak of approximately 4,800 megawatts (MW) to just 139.9MW by mid-afternoon.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) confirmed the collapse, noting that the system disturbance occurred between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Data released by NISO at 3:12 p.m. showed that power allocation to nine out of the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) dropped to zero megawatts.
The affected DisCos with zero allocation included Eko, Ikeja, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Yola. During the peak of the collapse, only Ibadan DisCo and Abuja DisCo retained minimal supply, receiving 30MW and 20MW respectively, totaling a mere 50MW for the entire nation.
The collapse is particularly significant as it comes just days after the Federal Government announced that electricity generation was set to rebound following the repair of the vandalized Lagos–Escravos gas pipeline.
NISO had previously claimed that the restoration of this critical infrastructure would stabilize supply to thermal power plants.
By 6:23 p.m. on Monday evening, NISO reported that restoration efforts were yielding results, with total distributed power rising to 505MW.
While cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu began receiving varying levels of supply, Port Harcourt DisCo remained at zero allocation as of the last update.
This incident marks the fourth major national grid collapse of 2025.
The recurring failures continue to raise serious concerns regarding the fragility of the nation’s transmission infrastructure and its ability to sustain economic activities.
