Written by
Ishioma Appiah-Yeboah
Electricity supply across Nigeria has taken a hit following a major drop in power generation, with residents in Lagos and surrounding areas feeling the impact the most.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator says the situation was triggered by a sudden shutdown at the Egbin Power Station the country’s largest power plant.
According to NISO, the incident occurred around 8:21 p.m. on April 28, when the station’s output plunged from about 641 megawatts to zero. The shutdown was caused by a failure in the plant’s central compressor and a fault in its water circulation system.
The situation has been worsened by a transmission fault on the Osogbo–Ikeja West 330kV transmission line, limiting electricity supply to Lagos.
As a result, system operators have introduced load shedding to prevent a total grid collapse, while efforts are underway to redirect available power and prioritise critical services.
However, NISO says that the engineers are working to restore normal supply as quickly as possible and have appealed for patience from electricity consumers affected by the outage.